


Smoke and Sand

by goldenwatcher



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Smoke Series - Tanya Huff
Genre: AU, Crossover, Gen, M/M, brief OC - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2013-10-16
Packaged: 2017-12-29 13:32:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 34,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1006019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenwatcher/pseuds/goldenwatcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A magic spell gone awry soon has Tony and the cast and crew at CB Productions saddled with a stranger who claims he's a Time Lord.  When people start disappearing, Tony has to hope the man isn't crazy if he ever wants to see his friends again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smoke and Sand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Torra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Torra/gifts).



> A couple of things: 
> 
> 1) This story was written years ago, before the release of "The End of Time," and takes place then. Therefore, any commentary about Matt Smith's performance as the Doctor is completely the character's, and not my own.
> 
> 2) The story take place in the Smoke universe after the third book but before the short story "See Me" in the Those Who Fight Monsters anthology, so approximately October of 2010.
> 
> 3) In the Doctor's universe, this takes place just after the Season Three episode "Blink".
> 
> 4) Because this was written before the run of the Eleventh Doctor, there is canon divergence regarding the Weeping Angels.
> 
> 5) This was originally a chaptered story, so you'll see the breaks, but I was convinced to post it here in one big go. Thank Torra, because she also convinced me to write it in the first place. :)

## Part One

It was the lack of news that bothered him the most.  It had been a year since the announcement that David Tennant was leaving Doctor Who and fans had long known that there would be the four specials leading up to his exit.  They had been given the 2008 Christmas special which actually upped the count to five, and then the Easter episode, 'Planet of the Dead', but then there had been nothing.  There was no updates, no real news.  Everything was just speculation at this point.  In fact, the only solid news they had received was the announced casting of the eleventh Doctor.

Josh growled under his throat, rising off his chair to pace the room like a restless tiger.  Matt Smith!  Matt Smith as the Doctor.  It was ridiculous!  The guy looked like... he didn't even know, but Josh knew the guy couldn't be, wouldn't be the Doctor, not really.  It was true that he knew very little about the actor, but he didn't want to know.  He liked Tennant!  David Tennant was the ultimate Doctor.  He wanted _his_ Doctor.  And that brought his attention back around to the books that littered his desk, crowding his computer.  It was highly unusual to see Josh pouring over books instead of _World of Warcraft_ , but this was an emergency.  He couldn't handle the not knowing.  Each day that passed brought him closer and closer to a new special, but also to the end.  He felt like time was slipping through his fingers and he had no way to stop what was going to happen.

Josh had dwelled in his helpless predicament all summer, trying to distract himself by obsessively studying the three seasons of the tenth Doctor's reign.  He watched the DVDs time and again, each line memorized, every expression ingrained into his mind.  It wasn't enough, though, and so, while mulling over his hopeless situation one day, he'd stumbled across a small shop selling strange and unusual books.  Books normally weren't the type of thing that would even remotely distract Josh, but he considered the Library in recent episodes and figured maybe he'd find something exciting and different to shake up his world.  All he'd found, however, was dust and musty old books.  He'd wandered the few aisles of the cramped bookstore, bitter with disappointment, until something had caught his eye.  He pulled the tome from the shelf, studying the red, leather-bound cover.  There wasn't a title or author listed, which was fairly unusual for a book.  He opened up to the first crackling page and had glanced over the table of contents.  It had appeared to be a spellbook, which was enough to make him snort in disgust.  He'd almost put the book back when he hesitated, his eyes locked on a title approximately two-thirds the way down the page.  "Interdimensional Travel."  He'd flipped to the page, studying the descriptions at a glance, but his mind had already started working.  He hadn't been able to find the proprietor of the shop and so snuck out with the book.

It had taken two weeks for him to reach the point of readiness.  His parents were out, leaving him alone.  He'd cleared an open space on his bedroom floor, which just proved his level of determination, and set up everything he'd needed.  It had taken him hours to pour out the various colored sands into the pattern the book detailed, setting pillar candles just so.  He went to his desk, picked up the red leather volume and turned to study the design he had meticulously laid out.  He had practically memorized the words he was supposed to say and began the lengthy incantation.  It was convoluted, sounding to him like something foreign such as Spanish or Shakespeare, and hard to wrap his tongue around, but he'd read and reread until, even though he didn't understand exactly what he was saying, he could recite it.

As he spoke, the candle flames danced and giggled in the still air, moved by some unseen power.  It made the light flicker and the shadows pace the walls in eerie silence.  A thrill ran through Josh and he continued the strange litany, speaking the seemingly ancient words into the heavy air.  The strange dance of the candles evened out into a swirl of bent flames as a wind that seemed to come from the center of the design itself forced them to move by its will.  The words rose to a powerful crescendo and seemed to resonate deep within Josh's bones, the light making the colorful powder on the floor, which remained still and undisturbed, almost glow.  Finally, as his words finished, the wind snuffed out the candle flames then disappeared.

All was dark.  Josh blinked, straining to see into the inky black.  He had put blankets over the curtains to make the room as dark as possible and hadn't planned for the possibility of the candles going out.  He stumbled to his desk and opened one drawer after another, searching for his flashlight, then flicked it on.  The beam was weak, the light dying.  He headed back over to the circle and paused not far from it.  A statue stood near the edge of the room.  It appeared to be granite, old Roman-style gowns draped about the figure and great, full wings nearly touching the floor.  The angel’s hands were raised, shielding its face in mute weeping.

"What the hell?" Josh muttered, walking up to the figure.  How did a stone angel arrive in his room?  Where had it come from?  He walked toward the figure but halted suddenly, just out of reach.  His eyes widened as he stared at the angel.  "No," he breathed, his hands suddenly trembling.  "It... it can't be."  He reached out a hand, like he was going to touch the stone, but then pulled away fearfully.  He'd used the episode Blink as a reference for the spell, and the weeping angels were in that episode.  They were assassins, sending people back in time, but only when unobserved.  When seen, they turned to stone.  And there were four of them.

Josh scrambled backwards, into a corner, hitting his flashlight.  Indeed, there were four statues in the room, all facing separate ways.  "I didn't call you!  How did you get here?" he said, his tone desperate.  "He... he trapped you!  You shouldn't..."  But eventually, the light in the basement where the angels had been tricked by the Doctor into looking at each other had to burn out.  If that wasn't the case, the room they were currently in was pitch black, and only the flashlight gave any illumination, and even that was dim and muddy as the batteries faded.  He whimpered and looked to the far wall where the light switch was.  The only way he could reach it was to look away from the four.  Look away...

His head snapped back around.  Three angels still stood, hands raised to shield their eyes, but one stood within feet of him.  The hands were extended, reaching for him, claws sharp and menacing.  The mouth was wide and twisted cruelly, fangs long and horrible in a seemingly safe visage.  Josh shrank back into the corner.  He would never be able to get to the light without taking his eyes off of one of them.  The light of the beam was slowly dimming, fading into the blackness.  His eyes teared up as he sank slowly to the floor, curling up in fear.  "It wasn't supposed to be like this," he whispered in terror.

The flashlight ebbed until the total darkness reigned.  Josh waited helplessly, whimpering.  Something cold and sharp touched his cheek and he screamed.

## Part Two

"Oh my God, my hand," Martha hissed, studying the friction burns across her palm.  "You know, if we managed to take the time to find bows and arrows, the least we should have done is picked up a hand guard or something."

"Nah," the Doctor replied, favoring his companion with a boyish grin.  "Where's the fun in that?  If you get burned, you're doing it wrong, so you learn to do it right."

"When am I going to pick up a bow again?" she asked.  Almost immediately, she raised a hand to stop whatever he was about to say next.  "Never mind.  I don't want to know."

"Oh, come on, Martha," he said, his enthusiasm shining.  "Dragons!  Tanites, really, but we just fought a real dragon... Tanit!  Well," he corrected as an afterthought, "we distracted her.  Well, we sort of just inconvenienced her, I suppose.  Still," he perked up, "we saw her hatchling being... well, hatched.  Pretty exciting stuff, really."

The Doctor's infallible excitement, as usual, was contagious and Martha had to laugh.  "It was certainly something else.  Did you see those eyes?  Oh, what a darling little... spiny thing."  She looked over at him.  "Are you sure they won't come back?"

"Nah," he said again, thrusting his hands into his trouser pockets.  "This world isn't safe for her baby, so she won't be back, and the migrations are only triggered by the birth of a hatchling.  The Tanithites will think twice before trying to coerce the dragons back to this planet."

"So, let me make sure I understand this.  The Tanites, singularly Tanit, are the dragons, and the Tanithites are the beings who live on Neith with the dragons and worship them.  But if the Tanithites are smarter than the dragons, why are they so threatened by them?  Couldn't they sort of... cull the herd?"

"Oi," the Doctor said, frowning at her, "That's a beautiful and rather fascinating creature you're talking about killing.  They may be animals, but they deserve to live as well.  They are perfectly happy to remain on their own planet and just hunt off of other planets.  The Tanithites may be smarter, but they have lived for millennia in the worship of the dragons, and they feel it is their duty to help them extend beyond the limitations of their home world.  In a few centuries, the Tanithites will realize the futility of their efforts and stop.  Oh, hello," he said, breaking off the discussion.  He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the purple plastic folder he had been given before the battle with the Tanithites.  "I'd forgotten about you."

"What's that?" Martha asked as they approached the TARDIS.

"It's the folder that Sally Sparrow gave me," he said, turning it around in his hands. 

"The blond outside the shop?  What's in it?"

"Details about the future.  She said we'd get stuck in 1969, but how would that happen?  Why wouldn't the TARDIS be with us?"  The Doctor considered the folder, then shrugged.  "Oh well, no help for it.  We'll just have to carry the packet around until we know why."  He pulled out the key and unlocked the door.

"Or we could open the folder and look," Martha suggested.  "The answers are right there."

"Spoilers," the Doctor replied, taking off his bow and quiver and negligently tossing them aside into the vehicle.  "Come on, let's have the weaponry before someone starts asking questions."

Martha shrugged her gear off and handed it to him, but then took the folder, backing away a bit.  "They may be spoilers, but that's the point, isn't it?"  She peered through the plastic.  "It appears to be a letter, some photographs, and some other papers." 

The Doctor watched her, his expression slightly disapproving.  "We can worry about that when the time comes.  For now, we just need to carry it with us."  He stepped through the door, tossing the second set of weaponry aside, and turned back.  "Now come on."  He grinned suddenly.  "I know just the place we can go.  There's this planet--"

Suddenly, the door to the TARDIS swung shut, slamming in his face and leaving Martha outside.

"What?" he said in surprise, looking around.  The light of the central counsel started to glow brightly as he looked.  He turned back to the door, trying to open it.  "Martha!  Martha!"  He sprinted to the consol, twisting the screen to face him.  There was an abrupt spiking of energy around the TARDIS, but it didn't seem to be originating from her.  Was something attacking?  With him inside, he was safe, but Martha... he ran back to the door and jerked at it.  "You've got to let me out to help her!" he shouted to the teal light of the consol.  "Martha!"

The entire place shuddered, knocking the Time Lord into one of the hand rails of the walkway.  The TARDIS shuddered and jerked, sparks flying from her as her companion struggled to regain his feet and go to the controls. He had to crawl his way over.  He finally managed to reach the panels when all the movement stopped and almost all the lights when out.  Only a dim glow from under the consol showed him that she was still operational.

"What was all that about, eh?" he asked, slowly rising up to touch the now dark column. He went to the monitor, but the screen was blank and unresponsive.  He moved back to the door and cautiously opened it.

The street outside was dark, the concrete shining wetly from the reflection of the distant streetlamp.  He appeared to be in a narrow alley of some kind.  He didn't seem to be in London anymore; there was an abundance of parking around buildings and the main street in front of him was neither narrow nor congested.  In fact, it was quite empty.  He stepped out of the TARDIS and closed the door.  He hadn't been sure the sudden travel would have sat him back down in London.  The TARDIS wouldn't have felt the need to go into hibernation the way she was if they were safe and sound on Earth, and it had been mid-afternoon when he'd left Martha.  Martha...

He looked around, squeezing back behind the TARDIS to make sure.  "Martha!" he called out, looking around.  "Martha!"  Of course, even if it was simply later the same day as he left, she wouldn't have sat there waiting for him.

The Doctor looked to the mouth of the alley.  He heard noise coming from nearby, the din of many voices in a single enclosed location.  He went to the parking lot and looked around.  For the most part, it was empty, taxis running up and down between what appeared to be a hotel on either end of the street.  There was what seemed to be a major intersection and, at the end of the building he was standing next to, there were a couple of people moving in and out of a cafe.  He frowned, studying the appearance of a woman that was heading toward a car.  She was dressed in a plaid, pleated skirt that was very short and a black vest.  She wore some kind of plastic black boots that were a couple of inches tall and reached as high up as her knee.  Almost every bit of exposed skin was covered in black fishnet.  A long, black coat completed the outfit.  Her hair was black and red in pieces, almost like a checkerboard, and her makeup was thick and exotic.  He considered the style, or what might have passed for style, as he jogged over toward her.  He'd seen a look like that before on Earth, so maybe he really wasn't in as much trouble as he thought.  It was almost a pity.

"Excuse me," he called out as he neared her.

She turned around and her heavily lined eyes narrowed as she studied him, her hand tightening on her keys.  "If you've come here looking for an easy mark, buddy, you've picked the wrong girl."

Her speech surprised him for a moment.  It wasn't the smooth cadences of English that he was familiar with.  If he had to guess, he'd have said it was something closer to American.  Exactly what region, he didn't know.  He rarely wandered over to that side of the Atlantic.  The expanse of their history was far shorter than that of Europe.

Realizing that he must seem relatively creepy standing in the shadows and staring impolitely, he raised his hands and stepped into the beam of a streetlamp.  "No, no.  I'm simply lost and was hoping you might tell me where I am, Miss..." he said, fishing for a name.

"None of your business," she said, not being particularly friendly.  There were reasons he didn't travel to North America often.  She frowned as she studied him, like she'd seen him before and couldn't place where.  "You're British?"

"Yup.  British, that's me," he said cheerfully.  "Arrived just now and seemed to have scattered myself while I'm at it.  Where are we?"

"Outside of Ginger Joe's at the intersection of Alexandra Road and Alexandra Gate," she supplied.  He was almost surprised she was so willing to answer him.  "Have we met?  You seem familiar."

"I doubt it," he replied, lowering his hands.  "I would remember.  So, Alexandra Road and Alexandra Gate.  Where is that exactly?"

The woman blinked.  "What, like which town?  This is Richmond."

"Richmond..." He left the phrase hang, hoping she'd complete it.

She crossed her arms, staring at him like he was crazy.  "Richmond, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, North America, planet Earth.  Oh my God, you're not from another world, are you?" she suddenly asked, excited.

The question surprised the Doctor and it was his turn to blink in bemusement.  "Well... maybe not another world, exactly.  Well, yes, but maybe not, but... you know, I don't know.  It sort of depends if you mean a parallel world or another planet."

"Or another reality," she added.

He frowned, putting his hands into his trouser pockets as he studied her.  "How do you mean?"

She shrugged.  "Well, you know, Earth and Mars are different planets, and Earth and a different Earth are parallel worlds, but Earth and Hell are different realities.  Or maybe just different layers of the same reality," she mused.  "I never quite got the straight of that."

"There's no such thing as hell," he said, wondering who this woman was that she was so casual about these concepts.

She snorted inelegantly.  "Yes, there is.  Take it from someone who knows, buddy."  She cocked her head.  "Tony's going to love this," she said, pulling out her cell phone and hitting a button.  She looked the man over as the phone rang.

"Who's Tony, if you don't mind me asking?" the Doctor said, unsure he liked how strange this was turning out.

"He's a bit of an expert at this stuff," she replied vaguely.  "I'm Amy, by the way.  You are...?"

He turned from his regard of his location and smiled at her.  "Sorry.  I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?" she asked, and then frowned, that same look of familiar confusion crossing her face.

"Just the Doctor."

She cursed, closing the phone.  "He's not answering.  You can't be just 'the Doctor'.  You have to have a name of some kind."

"No name.  I'm just 'the Doctor.'"

Amy scowled at him briefly, then a look of dawning comprehension bloomed on her face.  "No way."

The Doctor turned around, trying to figure out what had put that expression on her face.  "Um... yes way?" he replied.

"No.  Way.  No, I mean... you're the Doctor.  The Doctor-Doctor.  As in, _Doctor Who_ 's Doctor."

"Doctor what?" he said, really confused now.  She wasn't making any sense.

"I don't watch the show enough, Tony would know, but you're the Doctor!  A Time Lord or some such nonsense, or you seem to think you are anyways."  She walked closer, unconcerned about approaching a man that could very well be crazy.  "You sure look like him.  The costume can be faked and so can the accent, but the figure... you really are obnoxiously skinny."

"Oi," he said, slightly offended.  "It's not that bad."

"Yeah, it is."  Amy circled him, looking him up and down suspiciously.  "So I don't suppose you can prove that you're who you say you are."

He glanced at her.  "Sure can," he said, pulling out a small leather wallet.  He flashed the psychic paper at her, letting her see what she wanted on it.

"You have a badge that states you're the Doctor?" she said doubtfully.  "That's bizarre."  Music interrupted whatever she was going to say and she pulled out her cell phone, glancing at the ID.  "Tony, I think I need you down here."

"Hi, Amy, how are you?  Sorry I was busy.  I’m fine, thanks for asking.  What can I help you with?"  His voice came dryly over the line.

"Yeah, while you were 'busy'," she said, adding a deeply lascivious emphasis to the word, "I was being accosted outside of Ginger Joe's."

"Are you alright?" he said suddenly.  "You're not hurt or anything, are you?"  Or, at least she thought that was what he said.  It was kind of hard to tell as the Doctor proclaimed, "Oi, I didn't accost you!"

"Oh, yeah, totally fine.  I'm standing here now with the guy.  He says he's the Doctor.  You know, the Time Lord?"

There was a long pause on the phone.  "You're talking to the Doctor from _Doctor Who_?  Amy, it's still two weeks until Halloween.  Don't you think it's a little early for a prank like this?"

The Doctor sighed and reached into his blazer, pulling out a strange, hand-held device.  He pointed it at the cell phone, making Amy's eyes widen, but before she could react, he pushed the button.  The tip glowed blue and a strange, thrumming sound filled her ears.  Then he shut it off and put it away.

"Am I supposed to be impressed by that?" she asked.

"Impressed by what?"  Tony's voice was suddenly quite loud as the sound came over the speaker instead of just the microphone.

She jerked the phone back, then stared.  "How did you do that?"

"If this man is an expert on the weird like you say he is, then I need him here," the Doctor replied.  "I have to know what is going on."

There was silence for a moment.  "Amy, I'm coming over there.  Stay where you are and don't wander off.  I'm going to call Kevin Groves as well."

"We'll be right here," the Doctor replied for her, eyes intent.

## Part Three

Tony peered out the window as Kevin pulled them into the parking lot of Ginger Joe's.  He was trying to make out the features of the tall, thin man that was standing next to Amy.  The man was in a pinstripe suit and brown trenchcoat, a grin on his face as he gesticulated wildly.  He was chattering in excitement about something, and Amy was grinning as well.  Tony was familiar with that look.  It was the one she got anytime something happened around the _Darkest Night_ set that required Tony the Wizard, and not Tony the third assistant director.  The show was at the end of its second season of filming now, and if there was one thing Tony was far too familiar with, it was that look, and it made him very, very nervous.

"He certainly looks like David Tennant," Kevin murmured as he parked and peered at the other man as well.

"Yeah, he does," Tony replied.  "But that doesn't mean anything."  He climbed out of the car and walked over.  The man had apparently finished his tale and was watching Tony, his posture relaxed but his eyes summing the younger, smaller man up.  The man who claimed to be the Doctor was a good couple of inches taller than Tony, but what was more intimidating about him was the feel.  Tony had spent years in the company of Henry Fitzroy, bastard son of Henry VIII.  He and Chester Bane, the executive producer of _Darkest Night,_ both had a certain quality to them that Tony referred to as Prince of Man.  The man standing next to Amy, although his masks were more friendly than Henry's, also had that same quality to him.  Tony suspected that, should this Doctor make a demand, he would expect to be obeyed.  Tony, however, had spent years as first the lover and then the friend of a vampire, and the act didn't fool him, nor did it intimidate him.

"So, this is the Doctor," Tony said, stopping out of reach.  He felt Kevin move up behind him.

"Yup.  The Doctor, that's me," the man replied.  He certainly sounded like the Doctor.

"He's not lying," Kevin murmured.

"That only means he believes it's true, not that it is," Tony responded, not taking his eyes off the man.  "I don't suppose you can prove your claim."

"He has a badge," Amy supplied helpfully.

Tony frowned in confusion.  "He has a badge that identifies him as the Doctor?"

"Yup," the Doctor repeated.  "Here we are."  He flipped open the wallet again for the benefit of the two men.

Tony and Kevin both glanced at it.  "That's blank," they said in unison.

The Doctor seemed surprised.  Amy took the wallet and stared at it.  "No, it says 'Doctor' right here."

"No, it doesn't," Tony said.  His blue eyes narrowed dangerously as he looked at the Doctor.  Just then, the unassuming young man looked like someone that was not to be crossed.  "What did you do to Amy?"

The Doctor raised his hands as if to hold back the younger man's anger.  "I didn't do anything," he said.  "It's psychic paper.  It lets the viewer see what they expect to see.  The psychic influence is low-level, though, so some people who are particularly apt can see through the suggestion."

Tony frowned slightly, holding his hand out for the wallet, which the Doctor handed him.  He turned it around in his hands, then slipped out the small sheet of paper and studied the back.

"That's cool," he admitted.  "But wouldn't it be a better idea to make a more powerful one so that everyone is fooled?"

"I didn't make it," the Doctor said, shrugging.  "Besides, too much more powerful and it might even fool me.  Just who are you and how can you see through it?"

Tony tucked the sheet back into the wallet and handed it all back to the man.  "This is Kevin.  He knows the truth, and I'm Tony.  I... well, I'm complicated."

The Doctor looked more interested than any of them had seen him as he studied Kevin like he was a particularly fascinating creature.  "You can distinguish the truth from a lie?"

Kevin appeared a bit uncomfortable under the scrutiny.  "Yes."

The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets and looked up at the sky, lips slightly parted so that Tony could see his tongue touch up upper teeth thoughtfully.  "What if I was to tell you that I'm from the planet Gallifrey?"

Kevin nodded.  "True, or at least the truth as you understand it."

"What do you mean, as I understand it?" he asked curiously.

Kevin looked to Tony, but the younger man just waved him on.  "I just know if you're lying to me.  If you tell the truth as you understand it, even if it's not the actual truth, you wouldn't know any better.  If you told me that I was an engineer, it would come across as truth even though it's not."

The Doctor eyed him, fascinated.  "The square root of twenty million, thirty-four thousand, five hundred and seventy-six is four-thousand, four hundred and seventy-six."

Kevin didn't even hesitate.  "True."

"The Daleks' home planet is Adipose Three."

"False."

The Doctor stepped forward, closer to him.  "I hate pears."

Kevin's lips twitched in amusement.  "True."

"Oh, that's just brilliant!  Well, I'm sure it's a bit inconvenient for you, but still fascinating."  He turned and looked at the shorter young man, Tony.  "And what about you?" he said thoughtfully.  "What are you?"

"As I said, I'm complicated," Tony replied.

"Yeah?" the Doctor challenged, peering at him.  "Good thing I'm quite clever."

"I'll take your word for it," he said dryly.  "So... Doctor," and he rolled his eyes.  "If you are the Doctor, than where is the TARDIS?"

"How do you know about the TARDIS?"  The Doctor was not nearly as amused by this young man.  He knew a lot and said very little.

Tony shrugged.  "I watch television.  Let's see, the most cliché place we would find a time-traveling phone booth would be..."  He turned in a circle, then smiled.  "Of course.  An alley."  He jogged over to take a look, Amy and Kevin following behind him.  The Doctor couldn't decide if he was more interested in where he was or what Tony was, but either way he had to make sure they didn't damage the TARDIS.

"You know, it's only cliché if everyone does it," he pointed out as he followed them over.

"Everyone does," Tony replied.  Sure enough, there was a big, blue police box inside the alley.

"You see a lot of people parking police boxes, then?"

Tony paused on his way over to the TARDIS and glanced back at the Doctor.  Suddenly, he grinned.  "Point taken."  He turned back and put his hands gingerly on the wood, studying the structure.  He moved around to the door and traced his fingers over the small lock, then murmured something in a strange language.  The box shuddered, making him look up in surprise.  Before he could say anything, the Doctor was beside him, pulling him away and gently caressing the door.

"What did you do?" he said, not nearly as relaxed as he'd seemed before.

Tony wasn't really worried.  His eyes ran over the box, considering.  "I tried to unlock the door," he said after a moment.

"Unlock the door?"  The Doctor looked at the TARDIS, then back at Tony.  "But you don't have a key.  What did you do?"

"You know, this doesn't actually prove anything.  Why don't you show us the inside?  It might help your claim."

The Doctor's expression hardened.  "Not until you tell me what you are."

Tony gazed back at him unflinchingly.  He wasn't intimidated by this man, even if he really was a Time Lord.  "If you really are the Doctor," he replied, "than you are a long way from home.  If you don't know where you are or how you got here, than you're going to have trouble finding your way back.  If you blunder around here and cause a scene, than I'm the one who has to clean up your mess."

"Oh, I'm quite capable of cleaning my own messes."

He snorted.  "Not from what I've seen.  You show up and suddenly all the world knows aliens exist.  This world isn't like that.  We don't have time-traveling aliens... wait, do we?" he asked, looking curiously at Kevin.

Kevin shrugged.  "None of the reports we've had sound remotely plausible, even the ones that are telling the truth."

"Let me guess," Amy butted in.  "'Woman impregnated by time-traveling alien.'"

"She wasn't lying," he pointed out.

"Anyways," she continued, "it's not like any of the Doctor's messes are bigger than yours, Tony."

He looked slightly offended by that.  "Are you kidding me?  He has an alien invasion and everyone knows it's an alien invasion.  I have any kind of invasion, and no one knows anything about it."

"You hush it up?  Shame on you," the Doctor admonished.

Tony rolled his eyes.  "I don't have to.  No one believes it.  The people in this world, when confronted with something they don't believe is real, will go through extraordinary lengths to convince themselves they didn't see what they just saw.  I've seen people watch me fight a demon just to turn around and applaud what they consider to be excellent special effects."

"You've fought demons?" the Doctor replied.

"TARDIS, Doctor.  I haven't got all night.  Some of us have to work in the morning."

By now, the Doctor was more curious about what this young man was than worried about what he would do.  He unlocked the TARDIS and pushed open the door, letting the trio look inside.  The interior was still dim as she hibernated, waiting for instructions.

All three humans poked their heads in through the door.  "Oh, this is so cool!" Amy said in excitement.  "It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be."

Tony didn't comment.  He looked around, then stepped inside.  Instead of moving toward the consol, however, he turned around and crouched at the base of the door, studying the wall.  Then he stepped outside and did the same.

"What are you looking for?" the Doctor asked.

"Runes," Tony replied.  "I've seen this spell before, but you have to draw runes either on the interior or exterior of the transdimensional space.  You don't have runes, though.  How did you do that?"  He looked impressed.

"You know how to do this?" Amy demanded.  "Why haven't you?"

"To what?  All it would create is a lot of empty space, and it's not an easy spell."

"Wait," the Doctor interrupted.  "Spell?"

"I'm a wizard," Tony said finally, looking at him.  "That's how I can see through your paper.  Well, at least I think that's why.  I generally can see the world as it is, instead of how I think it should be."

"And so the paper is just a paper," the Doctor murmured.  "But magic isn't real."

"What do you mean, it isn't real?" Amy said.  "You have a phone box that is bigger on the inside than the outside."

"It's still science," he said.  "Magic is inexplicable, and there is nothing that is completely inexplicable."

"Uh oh," Tony muttered, studying the walls of the TARDIS.  "Here we go."

"Excuse me," Amy retorted, "but of course magic is real.

"Just because you can't explain something doesn't mean someone else can't," the Doctor replied, slightly distracted by Tony's examination of the TARDIS.

"And how do you explain your psychic paper?"

"What, this?"  He pulled out the leather wallet and glanced at the paper.  "Well that's easy.  A field of ionic energy encompasses the body, some beings more than others.  What we perceive as a psychic ability, such as telepathy, is simply emitted through the field like radio waves.  It can be picked up by someone who is sensitive to such things."

"That's a piece of paper.  It doesn't have a mind and can't emit anything."

"That's part of the process of making the paper.  You charge the paper with an ionic field that reflects back to a person what they expect to see by interacting with your field.  Your eyes don't physically see anything on the paper, but your mind puts what it expects to see there because your field interacting with the paper's field tells your mind that what you expect is there."

Amy scowled at him, going over that in her mind.  "Then why weren't they fooled?"

"Because they are, in turn, psychic.  Some feature of their minds that influences their fields isn't affected by the suggestions, so they see nothing."

Amy struggled with that for a moment.  "Yes, well, I've seen Tony move things without touching them and send demons to another plane of existence with glowing lines he made appear in the air."

"With excellent and conscientious control, anyone could put enough power into their fields to move things.  That's all sound is after all, a subtle vibration of energy that moves the thin membrane of the ear drum and is funneled and processed by the mind.  Sending things back to the reality in which they belong is a simple feat for the Universe if it knows where to find them.  Sounds like the glowing lines tagged these so-called demons and the Universe took care of the rest.  And light is as much a vibration as sound and easily created to draw with.  See?"  He pulled out the sonic screwdriver, hit the button, and drew fading designs into the air like a child might with a sparkler firework.

"Oh, yeah.  Real impressive there, Doc," Amy said with a snort.  "Then what about--"

"Alright, children," Tony interrupted.  "It doesn't really matter how it works as long as it does."

"But Amy brought up a good point," Kevin said quietly.  He hadn't spoken much, watching the exuberant, lanky alien with a certain amount of fascination and fear, similar to how he looked at Henry.  It was sort of unnerving, Tony thought.  "If you used those runes to send the demons back, couldn't you do that for the Doctor?"

"I don't think so," Tony replied.  "The demons are from our reality, just a different plane of it, a section of it.  The Doctor would be from an entirely different reality from ours.  Besides, those runes are in a demonic language.  They may only go to the hells, and that would be bad."

"For us or for him?" Amy asked.

"Mostly for him, but I get the feeling he wouldn't go without a fight, and that would be bad for us."  Tony rose from where he'd been crouched at an outer corner of the TARDIS.  He touched the blue police box again, distracted by how warm and alive the vessel felt to the touch.  "Alright.  Um... Kevin, why don't you get back to doing what you do and find out if there are any strange occurrences that have happened around the same time the Doctor was supposed to have appeared.  Amy, I need to know if there have been any sightings of actors in the area acting strangely.  The Doctor may not be the only one."

"Actors acting strangely.  Yeah, that won't be hard or anything."

Tony ignored her.  "Doctor..."  He looked at the Time Lord, willing to suspend his disbelief and go with what he was being told for now.  The trouble was, what did he do with a Time Lord?  It was very early Friday morning, early enough that he didn't think it was legal to be awoken, and the studio was closed.  Where was he supposed to take a fictional character from a television show while he figured out what the hell had happened?  Home?  "Henry's going to love this," he muttered.

## Part Four

Tony slid into the booth, sighing as he looked at the taller man sitting across from him.  After he'd sent Amy and Kevin off on their missions, he'd walked with the Doctor down to an all-night diner closer to one of the hotels.  It didn't get a lot of business at that time of the night, but as far as Tony could tell, this was a good thing.  He didn't need any sci-fi geeks wandering up to get photos with their favorite Time Lord.  He got enough of that going out with Lee.

The Doctor, fortunately, had been mostly quiet, studying the street they had wandered down and the younger man beside him with equal intensity.  His silence had been amiable, but it was obvious that his mind was racing, thinking his way through what was happening.  On the way over, Tony had called Henry, as he inevitably did in these situations, and then Lee, because Kevin had been his ride and now he needed wheels.

"So... you do this sort of thing often?" the Doctor asked, adding sugar to the cup of tea he'd requested.  The question was more than understandable.

_"Hello."_

_"Hi, Henry?  It's Tony.  Look, I know it's getting early, but could you meet me at the diner near the Holiday Inn on Alexandra Road?  It's in Richmond."_

_"Are you in direct danger?"_

_Tony glanced at the Doctor as they walked.  He pretended not to notice.  "I don't think so, no."_

_"Then I'll be there in half an hour."_

_"And if I'd said yes?"_

_Tony could hear the edge in Henry's voice, and knew the smile that went with that tone, the one that flashed fangs and said the Hunter was close to the surface.  "I'd be there significantly quicker."_

_"Good to know."_

The conversation with Lee had been amazingly similar, minus the vampiric threat.  The first thing they'd both wanted to know was how much danger he was in.  It said something about his life that his partner and his ex knew to ask about the danger, and not about what was going on.  That conversation would have taken far too long.

"More often than is comfortable," Tony replied, his voice low.  "I'm the only wizard in Vancouver, to my knowledge, so when something happens, it usually falls to me to fix it."

"You and your mates," the Doctor corrected.  "You seem to have a great many people who know what you're up to."

"Not by choice, not at first.  It just sort of happened that way.  What about you?" he asked, taking a drink of his coke.  "I'm not up on the current details to know whether or not you have a companion with you right now."

The Doctor frowned curiously.  "She was left behind.  What do you mean, not up on current details?  You talk about me as if you know me and I'm fairly sure I've never met you.  You also seem very sure that I don't belong in your world.  How do you know so much about me?"

Tony considered the other man, trying to decide exactly how he would go about discussing this.  "I do know you, or some things anyways.  You are..."  How did a person say something like this?  "You're the main character on the longest running science fiction television show."

The Doctor blinked in surprise.  "A television show?" he said, sitting back.  "Really?"

"Yeah.  It's fairly popular, too.  And no, before you ask, I really can't show you any episodes."

The Doctor stared off.  "Oh, never mind that.  Spoilers," he said.  He looked at Tony, bemused.  "People really sit around watching me on the telly for half an hour?"

"An hour, actually."

The Doctor's eyebrows went up, impressed.  "An hour?  That's kind of flattering, really."

"You really don't want to see the show?"

"Nah," he said, shaking his head.  "It doesn't much interest me.  Life would be boring if I knew what was going to happen.  Besides, I'm a Time Lord.  If I wanted to, I could just peek, couldn't I?"

"And you believe me about the show?"  Tony was a little surprised.

The Doctor shrugged enigmatically.  "Why would you lie about it?"

"If you told me I was a character in a television show, I'd think you were crazy," Tony replied.

"It's not the strangest thing that's happened to me," he replied with a boyish grin, leaning back in the booth.

"Good point."  Tony set aside the soda.  "So, your turn.  How did you get here?  Last I checked, you were a time-traveler, not reality-hopper."

"Ah, yeah."  The Doctor stilled, his eyes on the cheap table top and the tip of his tongue touching his upper teeth.  It was a quiet, thoughtful expression.  Tony suspected that the Doctor's idea of thoughtful would probably make his own head spin.  "Well, that's the problem.  I have no idea."

The younger man blinked in surprise.  "Seriously?  No idea at all?  In all the time you've been doing your travels, nothing like this has happened before?"

"Nope.  Well, not quite like this," he amended.  "I've moved through realities before, but this was definitely a different circumstance.  The last time, we accidentally slipped through a crack in space and time, but we were already in the vortex when that happened.  That was akin to having a coin slip through a hole in your pocket that you didn't know was there.  This time, it was different."  He animated as he explained, his hands sketching his descriptions in the air.  He seemed to need to either use his hands or have them safely tucked away in his pockets.

"How so?" Tony asked.

"We weren't moving," he said with a quiet sigh.  "I had just stepped into the TARDIS and was still talking through the door to Martha when it slammed shut.  The energy that caused the move came from outside of the TARDIS, but I don't know where from exactly."

"Wait.  Martha?"  Tony frowned.  "You were with Martha?"

"Yeah.  Why?" he asked, suspicious.

"Martha was a season ago.  Or so."  He frowned.  "Yeah.  One season, two years, or something like that.  Why are you with Martha?"

The Doctor stared at Tony for a long moment.  "What you're saying is that Martha is no longer travelling with me?"

"Yeah.  You have a different one, or had.  Long story, and those spoilers that you mentioned."  Tony considered him.  "Actually, what it means is you're not in sync with us."

"My timeline as it exists in your reality is not in sync with my own personal timeline," the Doctor mused.

"Yeah.  Isn't that kind of strange?  Not that I know a lot about this sort of thing, but if you appear in this reality, why is it a you from the past and not the current you that is supposed to exist?"  He closed his eyes.  "Oh, my God, I'm already getting a headache."

"Well," he said with a casual shrug.  "Could be any number of reasons, I suppose.  Time isn't as straight forward as everyone thinks.  It's more of like a ball, although a bit wibbly-wobbly..."  He waved his hands, as if trying to decide the best way to explain it, then shrugged again.  "Anyways, when adding in the unknown dimensions of time and space, things can get a bit... complicated.  In all likelihood, your-me has lived through this extra year or two of time, but my-me hasn't done that yet because you're meeting me in your-me's past."

"Say what?" Tony said, confused.

"I'm a time-traveler.  None of the past year of your-me's existence has happened to me yet."

"But why?" he said.  "What I don't get is why your-you is here and my-you isn't."

"Probably has something to do with how I got here," the Doctor replied, sitting back in the booth and finishing his tea.

"So how did you get here?"

"I've no idea."

"Okay," another voice interrupted, "what the hell is going on here?"

Tony turned and looked up at Lee, who had walked up behind him as he and the Doctor had debated timelines.  Lee's green eyes were focused on the Doctor and he looked very, very confused.  No doubt he was wondering why Tony was having a conversation about time travel with David Tennant, assuming his partner knew who David Tennant was.  If he didn't, it might be grounds for separation.  When those baffled, green eyes focused on Tony, he nixed that thought immediately and stood up, letting Lee take the inside of the booth.  The Doctor just watched calmly, his eyes focused on the new arrival while his head rested against the back of the booth.

"Lee, this is the Doctor," Tony said, raising his hand to cut off the next question.  "As in, _Doctor Who_ 's Doctor."

To the actor's credit, Lee didn't immediately dismiss the story, but he didn't look convinced, so Tony gave him a really brief rundown.  "And now we're trying to figure out how he got here so we can get him home."

Lee stared for a long moment at the Doctor, the other man gazing back at him calmly.  Suddenly, the Doctor sat up with a large smile, extending his hand and making Lee jump.  "Hello.  We haven't properly been introduced.  I'm the Doctor, pleasure to meet you."  He took Lee's hand and shook it, the actor looking bemused.  "And you are?"

Although meeting a fictional character from a television series was one of the strangest things one could foist on an actor, numerous experiences with ghosts, shadows, and all sorts of things that went bump in the night had given Lee an excellent recovery time, no pun intended.  He gave the Doctor a charming smile that was both well-practiced and seemingly effortless.  "Lee Nicholas.  I'm Tony's partner."

"Partner?" the Doctor asked politely.  "Like his accomplice?"

"Like his boyfriend," Lee said, amused.

"Ah," he replied delicately, letting the matter drop.  "So, Lee, any thoughts one what might have caused this?"

"Magic."  When both Tony and the Doctor blinked at him, surprised by his quick answer, he smiled.  "It's always magic of some kind.  A wizard is second only to someone playing with powers they don't understand as the greatest cause of mischief in Vancouver."

"You think this was a wizard?" Tony said, surprised.

"More likely someone playing with powers they don't understand, I'd say."  When they both continued to just look at him, he shifted a bit uncomfortably.  "You don't need to look so surprised.  I mean, the wizard who gave you the long distance course was from another world, wasn't she?"

The Doctor and Tony looked at each other.  "You learned your magic from a wizard from another world?" the Doctor asked.

"Ah... yeah.  Something like that," he replied awkwardly.  "It's a long story."

"But if you know someone from another world," the Doctor said, his gaze intent, piercing, "then you know how this person travelled back and forth between those worlds.  That's useful knowledge, Tony Foster."  Then his eyes wandered up, past Tony, and his expression changed to one of immense delight.  The Doctor stood and Tony looked quickly behind him to see Henry walking up.  Why the vampire's approach would please the Time Lord so much was beyond him.  Apparently, he'd surprised Henry, too, because he slowed cautiously.

"Hello!" the Doctor said, grinning happily.  "It's a pleasure to see _you_ again, Highness.  Hang on."  He paused, looking around.  "This is the twenty-first century, or at least I suspect it is.  You died a few centuries ago.  What are you doing here?"

Both Tony and Henry stared in disbelief at the man.  Lee just frowned.  "Wait, what?  Doctor, this is Henry Fitzroy, Tony's friend."

"Yeah, I know," the Doctor replied.  "Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, Prince of England and bastard son of King Henry the VIII, or..." and here he paused, sticking his hands into his trouser pockets and favoring Henry with his intent gaze, "at least he is in my world.  I should know.  I've met him."

Silence descended for a moment at the table.  "Oh, fuck me," Tony muttered, burying his face in his hands.

## Part Five

Tony almost felt sorry for the Doctor as they left the diner with just some change tossed onto the table for the drinks.  Henry had turned around and walked out of the place and the Doctor, perhaps a bit unwisely, had simply followed him out.  The Doctor did stay out of reaching distance, or what was reaching distance for a human.  He was fairly sure that, should Henry want to put his hands on the alien, he could do so before the Doctor could blink.  Lee hadn't said another word, just watching what was going on with equal parts trepidation and curiosity.  Tony had to give him points for keeping his mouth closed although it probably bore a bit from self-preservation.  No one on the set knew that Henry was a vampire, but they had seen glimpses of what he could do on occasion and Tony wouldn't want to get into a fight with a man who could do any of that, even if he was just a romance writer.

Once outside, Henry stepped into the dark alley and, once again, the Doctor foolishly followed him.  They had barely moved out of sight of any passer-bys when Henry had the taller man by his throat against the wall.  The Hunter was barely concealed by a thin mask of civility, eyes dark as they bored into the Doctor's.  The Time Lord paled as any human did, his eyes sliding down.  Interestingly, it wasn't out of a submissive cowering, as humans sometimes did when being presented with such a dominant predator.  Instead, the Doctor's eyes tracked down to Henry's snarl, where white fangs gleamed in the dim light.

"Oh, my God."  Tony heard the light, breathy gasp from just behind him.  He glanced at Lee, who's emerald eyes were wide with fear and surprise.

"Plasmavore, although from the change in eye color and the more violently predatory approach, I'd say you're closer to the modern cultural ideal of a vampire.  Considering plasmavores can only shapeshift their biology and not actually imitate a particular individual, I'd say the Henry Fitzroy of this world did not die of consumption.  Am I right, Nightwalker?" the Doctor asked, his voice awfully calm.  Tony glanced at him.  The tall alien was afraid, but not nearly as much as a normal human was.

"But you're not afraid of him, not as afraid as you should be," Tony said.  "You've seen vampires before?"

"Not like this.  Not in your more mystical sense of the creature."  He cocked his head, studying Henry.  The Doctor's calm curiosity was obviously beginning to irritate the vampire.  "I wonder if your traditionally magical creatures are all slightly different.  Have you ever seen a werewolf?"

"How can you be so calm with... with..." Lee stuttered, stepping slightly behind Tony.  The move was probably unconscious.

The Doctor didn't actually take his eyes off of Henry.  "Four daleks can destroy an entire planet.  One vampire could certainly kill me just as dead, but is still not as frightening as one dalek."

Henry studied the Doctor, irritation and curiosity beginning to war with each other.  "What's a plasmavore?"

The Doctor reached up and put a hand on Henry's, trying to ease him off without actually struggling.  "How's about you let me go, your Grace, and I'll be happy to explain?"

Their eyes met for a long moment, both men unflinching at the gaze of the other.  Tony held his breath, wondering if that would push the Hunter too far, but to his surprise, Henry slowly moved back, releasing the Doctor's throat.  The tall brunette rolled his head from side to side and smoothed down the front of his pinstriped suit, unconcerned about the marks on his throat from Henry's grip.

"There we are," the Doctor said, and was suddenly the impish, cheerful man that Tony was beginning to suspect was a mask itself.  "Where we were?  Ah.  Plasmavore.  From the Greek _plassein_ , to form or mold, and Latin _vorare_ , to devour.  Well, it would be if the origins of the species and its name was from Earth.  Anyways," he said, brushing past that point with a small wave of his hand, "plasmavores are a race that ingest the blood of other species and, in doing so, can change or shift their biology to match that of the species they just ingested."

"Henry can't do that," Tony pointed out.

"Yes," he murmured thoughtfully, studying the vampire as he put his hands into his pockets.  "I'm beginning to see that.  However, plasmavores kill the beings they feed upon.  Do nightwalkers such as yourself do the same?"

"Not last I checked," Tony muttered.

"I have fed from Tony on several occasions," Henry informed him, watching the Doctor chew his way through this new discovery.

"He's fed from you?" Lee asked, looking at Tony.  "Wait.  What am I saying?  He's your ex."  Lee stared for a moment.  "Tony, you dated a vampire?"

Tony shifted uncomfortably.  "'Date' isn't really the term I'd use.  It's a really long story, Lee."

"More importantly," the Doctor said, drawing attention away from whatever relationship Tony and Henry had shared, "is that Tony is still alive to talk about it.  Brilliant!"  He favored Henry with a sudden grin.  "Then we should get on just fine, for now.  I'm still curious about how you became a vampire.  Doesn't anyone know their history?"

"Portraits back then don't bear as much of a resemblance to their subjects as photographs do today," Henry pointed out.

"True."

"What I want to know," Henry said, crossing his arms, "is who are you and why are you talking about a species you say isn't from Earth?"

"I'm the Doctor," the Time Lord replied.

Henry stared at him, expecting more.  "A doctor of what exactly?"

"At least he didn't say Doctor who," Tony muttered.

"Oh, all sorts of things," the Doctor replies with a dismissive shrug.

"This can't go well.  Henry," Tony said, interrupting.  "The Doctor is a character from an ongoing television show.  Actually, it's the longest running science fiction show in the show.  It's ran for--"

"What do you mean, a character from television?" Henry asked, frowning.

Tony shrugged.  "Beats me.  Whether he actually is or not, I don't know, but he does have the TARDIS, which is... a really long story, actually," he said, watching Henry look around.  "What's wrong?"

"There's someone else here," Henry said, his eyes roaming over the alley.  They stopped on the Doctor as the man looked around himself.

"I don't see anyone else.  How do you know?" the Doctor asked.

"There's a fourth heartbeat."

Both Tony and Lee started to look around, but the Doctor shrugged helplessly.  "Ah.  That's me, I'm afraid.  Two hearts."

Everyone stared at him.  "Oh," Tony said.  He had a feeling that all of this was just incredibly unreal.  Considering the events of the past several years of his life, it was quite an experience.  "Henry..."

Henry just nodded.

"Then you can't be a crazy human," Lee said.

"I told you I wasn't."  The Doctor looked at them with amusement and a certain amount of sympathy.

"So how do we get you home?" Lee asked.  Between meeting the Doctor and learning Henry was a vampire, his sense of reality was beginning to be a little skewed, but he expected that around Tony, so he forced himself to focus on business.

"I think Tony was about to tell us that," the Doctor replied.

Tony blinked.  That was news to him.  "I was?"

"Yes.  You were about to tell us how this wizard from another world travelled."

"Oh.  Magic."

"Yes, we got that part," the Doctor replied almost patiently.  "But there's a method, correct?  Traveling through reality requires more in the way of preparation than just a wave of a hand."

"I'm not entirely sure," he said with a frown, thinking.  "The gate she returned through was on a timer, so I never saw her construct a gate, but I've seen some of the mock-ups.  My math isn't good enough for the calculations they needed."

"Mine is quite good," the Doctor replied, watching him intently.  "Where did you see these mock-ups?"

Tony remembered the chalk boards in the study back on Arra's world.  When she had bailed on the remaining members of her order, the Shadowlord had crucified them to the boards.  Those hadn't been the gate mock-ups, he reminded himself.  Those had been the schematics for the Light of Yeramathia.  "They were on her computers, the ones at work and her laptop."

"Laptop?" the Doctor asked.  He gestured to the laptop that was slung over Tony's back.  "That laptop?"

"Yeah," he said.  "But it's been deleted.  It's not on there anymore, and even if you could find it, there isn't room to call it up.  She's filled the hard drive with those magic lessons I mentioned."

"Let's have a look anyways.  Where are these other computers, just in case?"

"At the studio," Tony said, pulling out the laptop and booting it up.  "I have a key, but we really shouldn't go there unless it's necessary."  When the trend of the supernatural attacking the studio carried over through the hiatus and into the second season filming, CB had insisted Tony have a key, so he could deal with it in his own time and stop wasting the studio's money.  Tony had no doubt he meant that, but he still took it as a miniscule sign of support.

The Doctor came around Tony to see what was on the laptop.  As he moved, Lee shook his head.  "There's a glamour spell on the laptop.  You won't see anything."

The Doctor glanced at Lee.  "A glamour is a low-level psychic suggestion, perhaps stronger than the paper, but not strong enough to fool me."  He put on a pair of horn-rimmed glasses and studied the screen, then grinned.  "Spider solitaire.  Oh, well.  It's not the first time I've been wrong.  Excuse me."  He reached over Tony's shoulder and pointed the sonic screwdriver at the screen, passing it over.  The game cleared up and the list of information on the computer appeared instead.  "May I?"

Tony glanced at the screen, but handed it over.  "Just don't break it."

"I've never broken a computer," the Doctor said, taking the laptop.  "Except that once."  He crouched down, using the wall of the alley to rest his back again and laid the laptop over his thighs.  He waved the sonic screwdriver over the keyboard again, and studied the screen.  "You're right.  She deleted the information, but didn't completely reformat the hard drive, so the information is still there.  If I can just..."  He pointed the glowing took at the side of the machine, studying the screen for a long moment.  "Ah-ha!" he said, standing suddenly.  Tony's heart almost jumped into his throat as he expected the computer to crash to the concrete floor, but the Doctor deftly balanced it on one arm.  Strange patterns were reflected by his glasses from the screen.  The Doctor's eyes widened.  "Oh, you are _beautiful_!" he exclaimed in delight, grinning as he studied the computer.  "This has to be the gate schematic."

Tony, Henry, and Lee moved in close to him to study the strange pattern on the screen. Neither Lee nor Henry could make sense of it and, for that matter, neither could Tony.  It was, however, familiar to him.  "Yes.  I have no idea where that mock-up leads to, though."

"That's not so important," the Doctor said, studying the screen.  "This is just brilliant.  The calculations required for this are far more advanced than anything I've seen on Earth.  It certainly isn't from this world.  Metacoya, maybe, or Alicarsen."

"What?" the wizard asked.

"Planet of origin," he replied.  "Hard to say, however, since there seem to be significant differences between your reality and mine.  However," he pointed at a section of the swirling pattern, "If I'm not mistaken, that seems to be the galactic coordinates for Earth.  The preceding calculations must be where the planet of origin is in the various planes of reality."

"Various planes of reality?" Tony asked.  "Like Earth and Hell and... whatever."

"Not exactly," the Doctor said.  "We've been using the term 'reality' to indicate different worlds and universes.  I'm not from a parallel reality, but a parallel universe.  There is only one reality, and all of the various worlds and universes are part of the fabric of this one reality.  I believe that this preceding calculation is the theoretical location of this version of Earth in the complete fabric of reality, or as close as they could calculate it."

"Wait, why Earth?" Lee asked.  "I thought you said she was from a different planet?"

"But this gate was designed as an escape," Tony said before the Doctor could answer.  "A means for her to jump from here to somewhere else to escape the Shadowlord.  Where does it say she was going?"

He shrugged.  "It doesn't.  The pattern is open-ended.  There is a specific parameter with which to seek out a location to jump to, but no exact coordinates.  Wherever she landed was good enough for her."

"But you can figure out the coordinates, right?" Tony asked him.  "I mean, you have the galactic coordinates, since this is where you want to go.  You just need to figure out the exact calculations of your universe in the fabric of reality."

"By their calculations," the Doctor replied, "and that's not very specific.  These are well-educated but still limited calculations because they are basing them off of a theoretical construct of reality.  However," he said, pulling off his glasses as he looked at Tony, "I should be able to input the calculations into the TARDIS and she can give more accurate information as to where exactly we currently are and where we want to go."

"And when," Tony added.

"Nah," he said, closing the laptop and handing it back over.  "All I have to do is get to the exact universe and I can move to when I want to be on my own.  The hard part is going to be to get the TARDIS up and running.  She went into hibernation when we arrived because the energy of your world isn't compatible with her, so she has very limited stores.  The biggest question is for you, Tony Foster."  The Doctor turned to look at him.  "If I give you the completed pattern, will you be able to create the gate?"

It was a good question.  Tony opened the laptop to study the design.  There obviously was no instructions, so he wasn't sure exactly what he needed to do.  "If its anything like the Light of Yeramathia thing, I should be able to do it," he said, unsure.  "That was just a drawn pattern, nothing else to it.  It'll be hard, but not impossible.  However, she doesn't exactly have instructions to create the gate.  This is just calculations made into a pattern.  If there are words or some special thing that needs to be done like hop three times on my left foot, I don't know them, and I don't know that the gate will work without them."

"You've learned how to do things that weren't on the laptop before, Tony," Henry said, looking at him.

"Yeah, but they were round peg, round hole things.  They were me exerting my will on my own world.  With this, it'll be me and my magic trying to pierce layers of reality.  I'm not really sure good intentions are going to work for that."

"Let me give the pattern to the TARDIS and see if she can come up with anything," the Doctor said.  "She might be able to come up with something that will be simple enough for you to use."  He moved out of the alley, starting back up the street toward Ginger Joe's.  Tony started after him, though staying a distance away so that he, Henry, and Lee could talk.

"How the hell did you find a fictional character wandering the streets of Richmond?" Lee finally asked.

"I didn't," Tony protested.  "Amy did.  She said he stopped her as she was leaving Ginger Joe's.  I have her and Kevin looking for any similar occurrences.  We don't know he's the only one, but I hope to God he is."

"Even if we can use the gate to send him home," Henry said, "We'll still need to find out how he got here."

"Yeah, I know."  Tony rubbed his head.  "And I have no idea how to go about that.  Usually, there's something that leads us back to the point of origin, but if the Doctor is the only displaced character, he arrived in an alley, and that alley was barely big enough for the TARDIS.  I'm not sure there would have been room for nefarious things."

Lee grinned suddenly.  "Nefarious.  Have you actually been reading?"

"It was in the bad guy's dialogue last week," he said with a shrug, crossing the parking lot.  "Lee, you cannot tell anyone that Henry is a vampire."  His tone was serious.

Lee gave a nervous laugh.  "I was trying to forget that fact, Tony."

"We'll deal with it later," Henry said, ending the discussion.  His eyes turned to the actor, and they were dark.  "I'm sure he will keep quiet, won't you, Lee?"

"Henry, that's my partner you're threatening," Tony said mildly.  He didn't want to get into a fight over this, but if Henry tried to hurt Lee, there would be serious trouble.  He stepped into the alley.  "Now, the TARDIS looks like a phone box, I know, but is actually--"

"Gone," the Doctor interrupted.  He was standing in the empty alley, his eyes wide as he looked around.  "The TARDIS is gone."

## Part Six

Tony looked around at the empty alley, surprised.  It was certainly a development he hadn't expected.  "Gone?  How can it be gone?  Who would steal a phone box?"

The Doctor paced the alley like a caged tiger, running a hand through his hair which succeeded in doing nothing except making it look more wild than it already had.  "Perhaps that was the reason I was brought here," he said.  "They didn't want me, they wanted the TARDIS, but who?  Think," he growled to himself, pulling at his locks and making them worse.

"Think, but do it somewhere else," Henry said, stepping forward.  He ignored the look of surprised confusion the Doctor gave him and stepped forward, turning on the spot and taking a deep breath.  He frowned slightly, looking around.

"What are you doing?" the Doctor asked, curious.

"Smelling."  He turned in a slow circle.  "What does this TARDIS of yours look like?"

"A police box, really," he replied.  "She's stuck in that form.  From the outside, she's simply wood."

Henry's frown deepened and he studied the alley.  "What are you getting?" Tony asked him.

"You," Henry replied.  "Amy, Kevin Groves, the Doctor.  I also smell something I've never smelled before, and wood and granite."

"Granite?" the Doctor said.  "Are you sure?"

"I can tell the difference between granite and cement," Henry said dryly.

The Doctor didn't reply, turning on his heels to study the alley.  "There's no granite here."

"Perhaps it had been," Lee suggested.  "It's an alley.  It could have been an old scent."

"I'm not a bloodhound," Henry said, ignoring Tony's snicker, "but it's very new, sometime this evening.  I can't tell what accompanied it, though.  I don't know which of these foreign smells besides the wood is your box."

"Does this foreign scent smell like the Doctor?" Tony asked.  "What I mean is, the Doctor rides around inside the TARDIS.  He should smell like it and it him."

"Her," the Doctor corrected absently.  "Good show, though, but you've already said, Henry, that you smelled me and wood and then something foreign, so the foreign scent has to be whoever took her."

"Why is a police box a 'her'?" Lee asked Tony quietly.  "I'm familiar with the series, but I haven't really watched it."

"Near as I can tell, the TARDIS is a living creature.  He identifies it... her as female, though I'm not sure why," Tony murmured back.  He watched the Doctor and Henry explore the alley and shrugged slightly.  "Maybe it's some super psychic Time Lord knowledge, the gender of his vehicle.  Or maybe it's just because everyone calls their ride a 'she'.  Nice to know some inexplicable things are completely universal."

"There is no trail," Henry said.  "The scent is here, but not at either end of the alley or any of the doors."

"You're suggesting that whoever stole her flew out of here?" the Doctor asked, frowning.  "And smells of granite.  Well, that certainly narrows down the list, although why would any of those species be here?"

"You think it was an alien?" Tony said, surprised.  "It's usually magic for me."

"It's usually an alien for me," the Doctor replied.  "Still, I don't know enough about this world to really say.  What is stone and can fly?"

They all sort of frowned, looking around, then Lee snorted.  "A gargoyle."

Tony rolled his eyes.  "Great.  What the hell would a gargoyle need a time machine for?  I'm not up on my folktales, but they don't exactly die."

"Oh, of course!" the Doctor exclaimed, pulling his hair.  "Oh, oh, you are good."  He waved a finger at Lee.  "You are just brilliant, but... no, why would they... but they couldn't know I'm.... 1969!  But that can't be right.  Sally knew us both. Think!"

"It's a wonder he's not bald," Lee noted, watching the Doctor spin in a circle and, once again, pull at his hair.

"English, Doctor, and make sense for the lesser life forms," Tony said.

"The weeping angels," the Doctor said, looking at him.  "They're a race that are... well, pretty much your idea of gargoyles, except they aren't meant to frighten people.  Well, they do frighten those who know about them," he said randomly, spinning again.

"And back to the point," Tony said dryly.

"Right.  The lonely assassins, they're called.  They have existed since the beginning of the universe or there about, feeding off of the abstract energies.  But how did they know I'm here?"  He looked up at the stars, barely visible through all of the lights.  "I don't even know where I am exactly."

"Abstract energies?" Tony asked.

"Actually, I'm more interested in the 'assassins' part," Lee interrupted.  "Why don't you go over that part again?"

The Doctor lowered his eyes to look at them.  "They kill you," he said slowly, "by sending you into the past and letting you live to death.  Then, in the present, they feed off of the energy of all of those future moments you no longer have."

Tony and Lee looked at each other.  "That's not good," Tony remarked lightly.

"But you can stop them, right?" Lee asked the Doctor.  "You're a time-traveler.  If something happens, you can save us."

"Not without the TARDIS," the Doctor said, his expression grim as he studied the sky.

"Wait, I don't understand," Tony said.  "Why would these angels smell like granite?"

"Because they are.  Granite, that is.  They are quantum locked.  They are incredibly fast, but when observed by any living thing, they turn to stone."

"Well, that's not so bad," Lee said slowly.

"Ah, but then you glance away or blink, and you're dead."  The Doctor sniffed.  "The TARDIS is full of potential moments and energy.  She'd be a feast if they can get into her.  Fortunately, they can't, because I have the key."  He held up an ordinary-looking chrome key.  "Also, I have a psychic connection to the TARDIS.  As long as I'm in the same time as her, I can find her."

Tony rolled his eyes.  "Yeah, thanks for that service announcement.  What would the bad guys do if they didn't know exactly who to attack?"

The Doctor blinked and opened his mouth, but he seemed unsure how to respond, and possibly a little hurt.

"More importantly, we know how to find this TARDIS and get him back home," Henry said.

The alley was suspiciously quiet as both Henry and Lee looked at Tony.  "Oh, are you kidding me?" Tony grumbled.  "It's two in the morning?"

"And the Doctor's... what?  Going to sleep on your couch?" Lee asked, amused.  "Oh, wait; _you_ sleep on your couch."

Tony favored his boyfriend with a single finger before holding out his hand for the car keys.  "Fine.  I'll take the Doctor on a mission to save a wooden box from stone statues while you go home and get some sleep.  It's not the first time I've worked on little to no sleep."

"Well," the Doctor interrupted, drawing out the vowel as he rocked on his feet, "there's a small problem.  You see, even if we find the TARDIS and take it to safety, I can't leave the angels here and I've no idea how they got here.  I still don't even know how _I_ got here."

"So you can't get home without the TARDIS, but you can't save the TARDIS because you don't know how to get home?  Doctor, you're not really helping," Lee pointed out.

The theme to the _Darkest Night_ fortunately interrupted whatever mind-boggling nonsense was about to come out of the lanky alien's mouth.  Tony pulled out his cell phone and peered at the number.  "It's Kevin," he said, flipping the phone open.  "Hopefully he'll have some answers for us.  Kevin?"

"Tony, I didn't know exactly what I was looking for," Kevin started, his voice sounding a bit far away.  Tony couldn't count the number of time Kevin had dropped the phone on him because he'd held it tucked between his chin and shoulder.  "There was one, however, that sounded just up your alley."

Tony looked around the wet concrete walls.  "No pun intended," he muttered.  "What is it?"

"Joshua Bedlam, age seventeen, has apparently gone missing from his home.  Nothing unusual there, his parents were out this evening, so he's only been missing for a few hours.  However, his parents found a strange pattern drawn in colored sand on his bedroom floor and the melted remnants of candles, along with what appeared to be a book of spells."

Tony's eyebrows went up.  "A spell gone wrong."

"And get this," Kevin said.  "In the center of the pattern was a home-made DVD.  Written on it were three words: doctor, who, and blink."

"Series and episode."

"That's what I thought," Kevin said.  "So I looked up 'Blink' in reference to _Doctor Who._   It's an episode during the third season."

Tony closed his eyes.  "With stone angel statues," he said, resigned.

Kevin was quiet for a moment.  "Yeah.  How did you know that?"

"Because they've stolen the TARDIS," Tony said.  "Can you get me that book?  I need to see what the kid did so I can figure out how to reverse it.  We have got to get rid of the angels."

"That's going to be a little hard," Kevin said.  "They wouldn't let me take a look.  They want to preserve his room for the police to look at."

Tony sighed.  Of course they did.  Was his job ever easy?  He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a ratty notebook with a stubby little pencil.  "Alright.  Give me the address."  He scribbled it down.  "Okay, check with Amy and see what she got.  You two try to pool your resources together.  This is starting to look like a singular incident, but let's not get lazy.  Oh, and keep an ear out for other people disappearing under strange circumstances."

"Define strange," Kevin said dryly.  "I work for a tabloid."

Tony shrugged.  "Just... you know, one minute there, the next gone.  If I knew what I was looking for, Kevin, I'd say so, but the disappearances will probably be similar to this kid's, minus the obvious signs of magic."

"What'll you be doing?"

Tony shrugged.  "Fuck if I know.  Making it up as I go along, as usual."  He hung up.

"I suppose you'll be wanting me to break you into the house to take a look," Henry said.  With his hearing he had, of course, listened to the entire conversation.

The Doctor frowned.  "Break into a house?"  Tony explained and he nodded.  "Then leave getting in to me.  You just get us there."

"And how are you going to get in?" Lee asked.

The Doctor studied Lee, his tongue touching his upper teeth as he dug into his coat pocket.  With a grin, he flipped open his leather wallet.  "Detective John Smith, at your service."

Lee frowned.  "But that's blank."

The grin wiped clean off of the Doctor's face.  "What?"  He turned the wallet around as Tony laughed.  "But it's psychic paper.  Are you a wizard too?"

"He's been possessed by more than one evil wizard," Tony said, amused.

The Time Lord actually pouted.  "Well that's just cheating."

The wizard shook his head but turned to his ex and current boyfriend.  "You'll take him home?" he asked Henry.

"I won't let anything happen to him," Henry promised while Lee rolled his eyes.

"I'll be fine," he said, stepping forward to give Tony a quick kiss.  "You be careful.   If this really is the Doctor, he'll watch your back, but you keep your eyes open all the same.  And keep us all in the loop."

Tony raised his hands in surrender.  "I will, I will."  He smiled warmly at the actor, wondering yet again how he managed to get so lucky.  Oh, yeah, he had to stop an evil wizard, a haunted house, and a demonic invasion for that relationship.  He more than deserved it.

He finally headed over toward Lee's car.  After a moment, he felt the Doctor fall into step behind him.  The other man was uncharacteristically quiet, so Tony assumed he was still pouting over the lack of awe his paper had induced.  It wasn't until Tony was pulling out of the parking lot that he finally said, "By 'possessed by', you mean psychically and not in any sort of physical way, don't you?"

Tony ran over the curb.

## Part Seven

The Doctor politely waited for Tony to round the car before walking up the sidewalk with the younger man.  The house was ordinary, a two story suburban place in white with a picket fence and flower beds with dormant rose bushes.  Tony wasn't so much worried about the house, however, as he was concerned about what they might find inside, assuming they could even get in to have a look.

"So, this psychic paper thing.  How exactly does that work?" he asked the Doctor.

The Doctor pulled a hand from his pocket to ring the doorbell, rocking back and forth in his Converses.  "Oh, well, something like this..."  He smiled widely as the door opened to reveal a tired looking man.  "Mr. Bedlam?  I'm Constable John Smith from the RCMP," he said, flipping open the wallet to show Mr. Bedlam the paper.  His accent was gone quite suddenly, and he sounded about as Canadian as Tony.  "This is Mr. Foster.  You called earlier about your son being missing?"

The man's eyes flicked over the wallet and, to Tony's surprise, relief flooded his face.  "Thank God you're here," he said.  "I know it sounds crazy, and it's far too early to report something like this, but you don't know Josh.  He doesn't play pranks like this."  Mr. Bedlam stepped out of the way, allowing them inside.  "Sonya, the police are here," he called.

A woman hurried in from the other room, still dressed in her evening wear.  "I thought it was too early to launch an investigation." she asked, her tone sharp and scornful.  Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.  Tony suspected the snarling was her way of trying to pay the police back for their apparent lack of concern.

"It so happens that we had a specialist become available," the Doctor smoothly replied, gesturing to Tony.  "We can take a look around and try to get a better idea of what the situation actually is.  The bedroom is on the second floor?" He gestured to the stairs.

"Yes," Mr. Bedlam replied, heading over that way.  "I'll show you."

Tony kept his mouth closed until they were in the room and the Doctor had chased the worried parents away.  "A specialist?" he hissed.

"Well, you are, aren't you?" the Doctor replied, distracted by the pattern on the floor.  His proper accent was back, now that he was no longer pretending.

"I'm a wizard, and I am not a cop, and I happen to know a constable who is going to kill me for impersonating an officer!"

"You're not impersonating an officer."  The Doctor slid on a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles then grinned brightly at Tony.  "I am.  Now, what do you make of this, Specialist?"

Trapped between having answers at his fingertips and his impending arrest some time in the near future, Tony decided to focus on what was in front of him.  He strongly suspected that, if he didn't keep up, the Doctor would be more than happy to ditch him and go off on his own.  So far, he'd managed to keep the man's interest, but he didn't think for a moment that the Time Lord, despite his situation, felt he actually needed Tony's help.

Tony sighed and ran his hands through his hair, studying the design in front of him.  "It's kind of familiar," he said.  "A lot of the work on the laptop has designs similar to this, but I wouldn't expect that this is exactly the same."

"It's not," the Doctor replied, studying the pattern.  "The gate you showed me has equations worked into the pattern.  This is just a design etched onto the floor.  So it's not from Metacoya, like your mentor seemed to be."

"Still looks like magic, though."  Tony barely glanced at the pattern.  Instead, his eyes were roaming around the room.  "How exactly do these angels of yours move?"

The Doctor picked up a pinch of sand and let it fall from his fingers, studying it.  He then tasted it, making Tony roll his eyes and mutter something about happy dust.  "I don't know," he replied.  "No one has ever seen them move, remember?  Although, I know they move very, very fast.  Why?"

"Because the pattern fills up most of the floor and is completely undisturbed," Tony said.  He nudged a flashlight with his toe, then glanced at the books on the table.  "But everything else is.  There's paper everywhere, and the book is on the wrong page, but the candles are perfect pools and the sand is undisturbed."

The Doctor looked up at him, a little surprised.  "Very good," he said, his expression broadening into a grin.  "Oh, well done."

Tony shrugged.  "I've had an unfortunate amount of practice in the past year," he murmured.  He flipped the book to the table of contents.  He didn't feel that warm, living feeling as he had in rare circumstances, so he suspected it was just a collection of spells rather than a true grimoire.

"Batteries are dead in the torch," the Doctor said, dropping the flashlight back onto the floor.  He stood, sniffing, then pulled out his sonic screwdriver, scanning the air.  "Well, well, some very serious disturbances here."  Then he took off his glasses, reached into his pocket, and pulled on a pair of cheap, flimsy 3D glasses.  One eye has a red film, the other a blue.

"Alright, seriously?" Tony asked, closing the book.  "What are you doing?"

"Do you know that I once spent a day running around, whipping these things out, and I must have had upwards of five people with me at various times and no one, not once, asked me about the glasses?"  He pulled them off and offered them to Tony.  "I think I like you."

"I'm seeing someone," Tony said dryly, but he put on the glasses and looked around.  "Whoa!" he said, staring at the floating spots in the air.  "What are those?"

"Void stuff," the Doctor said.  "Little bits of... stuff.  They attach to things that spend time in the void.  See, here, look at me."

Tony glanced over at the Doctor and saw that he had some trailing around on him as well, but when he studied his own hands, there was nothing.  "So... the void is what exactly?"

"Oh," he said, taking the 3D glasses back.  "You were doing so well.  The void is the space between the worlds, the various levels of reality.  That's why I have void stuff and you don't.  You don't travel the way I do."

"So only those who travel in time gather that stuff?" Tony asked.

"Or those who travel through space, which is closer to what I'd say this is, since time doesn't really seem to be terribly different here than it was where I was... when I was."  He frowned, thinking his way through that a moment.

"So," Tony said, thinking aloud more than anything else, "like, with the gate, there is a door at point A and a door at point B, but normal space doesn't have a short connection between those two points.  I mean, you can't just leave this room and be at the studio.  So, the gate is just a link between the two points and the space that you travel through, which is still space but shorter than the actual traveling distance, is the void?"

"Very, very good!" the Doctor said enthusiastically, even proudly.  "You really are good at this."

"So when someone teleports or travels through this void, they pick up the void stuff.  This design, since it pulled you between two locations that couldn't technically reach each other, had to reach through the void, so we can track the angels, and the TARDIS by the way, with..."  He sighed as the Doctor waggled the cheap plastic, "3-D glasses.  Most wizards get super cool spells.  I get a kid's toy."

"Oh yes," was the gleeful reply.  "It's far more fun if you make it up as you go along."

"So, hang on.  Where is Joshua Bedlam? Can we use the glasses to track him?"

The Doctor's excited expression fell.  "Ah.  No.  I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but he was killed by the angels."

"You mean sent back in time," Tony said quickly.

"In this case, same difference.  Same difference," he said suddenly, looking up at the ceiling.  "Now that is a oxymoron.  A difference isn't really the same, so the phrase doesn't even actually mean anything.  Got the book?"

Tony blinked, trying to follow the Doctor's rapid and somewhat whimsical train of thought.  He picked up the spell book.  "Er, yeah."

"Good."  The Doctor led the way out of the room to where the Bedlams were anxiously awaiting word.  Mr. Bedlam stood when they walked in.

"Well?" he asked.  "Do you know anything?"

"It looks like a prank, near as we can tell," the Doctor replied, back to his Canadian accent.  "Ruffled papers, but if he had been grabbed by hostile forces than the sand on the floor would have been smudged in the resulting fight.  Still, we have one of the books he was reading and will see if we can find a clue in it.  If you still haven't heard from him within the next forty-eight hours, give us a call again."

He was so calm, smoothly lying to the distraught parents, that Tony found himself almost biting his tongue to keep from saying anything.

Mr. Bedlam nodded, swallowing.  "Yes.  A-Alright.  And if you learn anything, you'll let us know?"

The Doctor gave him a broad, reassuring smile.  Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.  Tony nearly snorted.  "If we hear anything about your son, you'll be the first to know."  With that, he led Tony out of the house.

Once back at the car, the Doctor took the spellbook and started looking over the table of contents.

"You can help him, though, right?" Tony said, starting the car.

"Who?" he answered, distracted.  His glasses were perched back on his nose as he read.  "Ah!  Here it is!  Interdimensional Travel, page three-forty-six."

"Joshua Bedlam."

"Who?"

"Doctor!" Tony said, looking over at the man.

The Doctor looked up, blinking owlishly at Tony.  "What?"

"Joshua Bedlam!  The boy whose room we were just in!  We were talking about how we're going to help him."

"And I said we can't.  I thought that ended the discussion," he said, going back to the book.

"You're a time traveler.  When we get the TARDIS back, you can go and get him, though, right?" Tony asked.  Admittedly, Joshua Bedlam's fate was his own creation, but Tony strongly suspected the boy hadn't intended to call the weeping angels.  He shouldn't have called anything, but it happened and he didn't like the idea of leaving the boy stranded when he could theoretically be saved.

The Doctor sighed, looking up and pulling off his glasses.  "Tony... Tony, yes?  Not Anthony?"

"How long have we been talking?  Yes.  Tony."

"Right," he continued, ignoring his companions sarcasm.  "I can't take the TARDIS back in time here.  You see, the energy she uses to run is... well, attuned to the world I'm from.  Here, she doesn't have enough have any energy to run from.  The power of this universe isn't compatible.  There's enough power in her to do some basic calculations and keep her systems alive, but I can't go back in time to rescue anyone."

Tony was quiet for a moment, absorbing all of that.  "So, when someone, anyone, gets sent back in time by the angels..."

"That's why they're called assassins.  It's best just to think of that person as deceased."

"And you have the key to the TARDIS, and they want the key.  They might come after any of us who have been around you!"  Tony said.

"And how is that any different when you fought demons?" the Doctor asked mildly.

Tony's head whipped around to stare at the Doctor in surprise.  "How did you--"

"I've met your mates, remember?  And they don't seem to be the type that would let you alone to fight demons, even if you are a wizard, and I'm still not certain you are."  He flipped open the book again.  "If you've been doing this as long as you have, than there has to be people you've lost."  He was suddenly thrown into the side of the car as Tony jerked the wheel, pulling them over rather gracelessly.  "Oi!  What was that for?"

Tony turned in his seat, staring at the Doctor with those eyes that seemed so fresh one moment and so very powerful the next.  "Tell me about who you've lost."

The Doctor lowered his hand from the side of his head, where he'd been banged into the door frame.  "I'm nine-hundred and six years old, Tony Foster.  I've had many people traveling with me, and you don't see any of them now, do you?"

"And how many died because of you?"

Tension ratcheted in the car as the Time Lord and the wizard stared at each other.  "That depends," the Doctor replied coldly.  "Exactly how do you mean?  Because if you mean people that I couldn't save, that's one thing, and if you mean people that have died helping me, that's another, but if you mean the number of people I've killed... well, I've lost count.  What of you, Tony Foster?"

Tony was a bit taken aback by the vehemence in the Doctor's tone, but he didn't back down.  "I've never killed anyone," he said, his voice soft.  "And I've never stood by and watched someone die when I could save them, but there have been times when there was nothing I could do, and I don't know what the total count is; I couldn't begin to guess.  That doesn't mean I give up on the people who are still alive.  What about your companion, Martha?  If she was sent back by the angels, there would be nothing you wouldn't do to save her.  You'd find a way.  The difference between you and me is, I don't give up on the little people if I can avoid it.  Joshua Bedlam isn't my friend, but I'm not going to just shrug my shoulders and leave him because you say it's not possible, and if any of my friends are sent back because of you, I'm sure as hell not going to leave them, nor would I leave your companion if she were here, nor would I leave you, so get your head out of your ass."  He turned around and started the car again, jerking the vehicle out of his clumsy parking and back onto the road.

All was quiet as the Doctor, infuriatingly, put his glasses back on and bent over the book again.  Tony gritted his teeth and just gripped the steering wheel.  As far as he was concerned, he couldn't get rid of this impossible alien fast enough.

"Do you know why I like humans so much?"

Tony was startled by the sound of the Doctor's voice.  He glanced sideways at the man.  "We're plentiful?" he snapped caustically.

The Doctor looked up, staring blankly out the windshield.  "Your spirit," he said.  "Nothing is impossible to you.  You say it is, but given the slightest chance for wonder, the slimmest chance for success, and you fight for it.  You never give up fighting.  Your passion is amazing, just beautiful."

Tony gave the Time Lord a long look, unsure what the point of this was.  "We're definitely pig-headed."

"Oh, yes," the Doctor said, animating suddenly with a bright grin.  He looked at Tony.  "So you are.  Enough to move the immovable, like a Time Lord."  He looked down, his expression solemn once more.  "I forget, sometimes.  The little things.  Someone... someone once said to me that I need someone with me to stop me.  I forget that when I'm on my own."

Tony shifted, suddenly uncomfortable with the gravity of the discussion.  Didn't the Doctor know men weren't supposed to talk about their feelings?  "Maybe you're right," he said softly.  "Maybe we can't rescue Joshua, but we can't abandon him without at least trying."

One side of the Doctor's mouth quirked in a sad smile.  "Quite right," he said.  What he was thinking about to make him so sad, Tony didn't want to even hazard a guess.  "And," he said, much louder and suddenly just as animated and enthusiastic as before, "our best clue is inside this book."  He slid his glasses back on, opening the spell book.  "'Interdimensional travel.'"  He flipped the pages of the book and started reading.

Tony glanced around at their location and suddenly realized he had no idea as to where they were actually going.  "Do you have any idea where we need to go next?" he asked.

The Doctor looked up and glanced around at their location.  "You told me that the other computers of this gate mock up were at a studio of some kind, yes?"

"Yeah.  CB Productions.  It's where I work."

"A production studio?" he asked, perking.  "Really?"

"Yeah.  Why?"

"Haven't been to one in ages.  What do you produce?"

Tony stared at him long enough that the Doctor considered reminding him to watch the road.  "What is it with you people from another world?"

"What?" the Doctor asked, confused.

"The Shadowlord was fascinated by television.  Of course, he wanted to use the studio to take over the world."  Tony glanced sideways at him.  It was a somewhat suspicious look.  "You don't plan on taking over the world, do you?"

"I think that's probably the first time someone's ever asked me that question," the Doctor said, amused and bemused.  "If I wanted to take over the planet, why would I go to another dimension to do so?"

Tony considered that.  "Good point."

After a moment's silence, the Doctor piped up again.  "You work in television?"

"Where are we going, Doctor?" Tony said, impatient.  "Gas isn't exactly cheap."

"Where is the gate?"

"Which gate?" he asked, confused.  "Arra's gate?  It's not there anymore, but it was at the studio."

"Go there.  I want to see what kind of readings I can get off of the remnants.  I assume there is leftover energy from the gate?"

Tony snorted, remembering the dozens of supernatural baddies that were attracted to the power of the gate.  "Oh, yeah."

Suddenly, the hteme to _Darkest Night_ sounded in the car.  The Doctor looked at Tony, then glanced down into the cup holder between them.  He picked up the ringing cell phone and lifted his chin to read the name on the caller ID through his spectacles, then opened the phone.  "Hello?"

"Hello?" Amy's voice came from over the line.  "Who is this?"

"Ah, Amy!" the Doctor said with a brightening smile.  "It's the Doctor."

"Where's Tony?" she asked.  "Is he okay?  You better not have gotten him hurt, Doctor, or we're all screwed."

"No, no.  He's here, safe as houses.  Well," he corrected thoughtfully, pulling off his glasses, "as safe as can be in a car.  Did you know that the chances of being killed in an automobile accident are one in five-thousand?   And that number goes up exponentially when driving and chatting on a mobile so I think I'd better do the talking.  Do you have something?"

"Not exactly," Amy said.  "I didn't find anything in the tabloids about actors in the area behaving strangely.  If there are more fictional characters wandering around lost in the lower mainland, they are keeping a low profile.  That's not why I called, though."

"Problems?" Tony asked as he started heading toward Burnaby.

The Doctor ignored him, staring intently out the passenger side window.  "What's happened?" he asked.

"Kevin called me saying something about a teenager disappearing and some kind of statue to blame.  He wasn't making a lot of sense.  Anyways, there's an all-night diner not too far from the studio, and since all things that go bump in the night wind up around there eventually, he and I decided to meet there and see what we could come up with.  I saw his car arrive, but he never came inside, so finally I went out to check on him and... he's just..."

"Gone," the Doctor said flatly.

"Yeah," she replied.  "The car door is open, and he has some files and notebooks scattered, but he's gone."

## Part Eight

"Gone?" Tony said, grip tight on the steering wheel.  "What do you mean gone?  Who's gone?"

"Did you pick up the files?" the Doctor asked Amy.

"Yeah," she said, sounding a trifle nervous.  "What's going on?  Do you know what happened?"

"Amy, listen to me," he said, voice firm and intent.  He sounded like someone you had better listen to, and Tony hoped the Doctor's string of companions meant that he knew how to take care of them.  He didn't know what happened, but he knew Amy was in trouble.  "Is there a loo there at the diner?"

"A what?" she asked.

"Restroom.  Toilet.  Lavatory.  Bathroom.  Some place small where you can be alone."

"Doctor, you're not seriously going to tell me to lock myself in a public bathroom, are you?  Do you know what kind of germs are in there?"  Her scorn was coming across the phone quite clearly.  "Besides, I'm not some damsel that needs rescuing.  I can take care of myself."

"Listen to me," he said.  "The disappearance that Kevin Groves was talking about was the teenager who summoned me into this world.  He brought something from my world over and it's killed him and Kevin.  They're fast, Amy.  Incredibly fast, and if you so much as blink around them, they'll kill you.  You need to go into the bathroom and wait for us to get there."

"But won't they kill you?" she asked.  At least she sounded like she was taking him seriously.

"Not if we stop them first.  Go into the bathroom.  We'll be right there."  The Doctor hung up.  "It appears as if the weeping angels got their hands on Kevin," he said to Tony, his expression grim as he stared out the front windshield.

Tony's knuckles were white from the hard grip as he drove.  "Tell me again how we can't save the victims, Doctor," he growled as he drove.  "I dare you."

"A young man I rather respect once told me not to give up on people," the Doctor replied, his tone firm.  "He also told me to get my head out of my ass.  You and your mates have stuck your necks out for me, Tony Foster, and I'm not the type of man who forgets who my friends are."

"Good," Tony said, pulling onto the highway.  "Because, quite frankly, I had no idea how I was going to sweet talk you into helping."

"Tea," the Doctor replied.  "I like a good cup of tea.  And an adventure.  And I love doing things that I've never done before."

"Well, you're about to go against the weeping angels to save your TARDIS, a teenager, and a tabloid reporter, and your backup is a wizard, a vampire, and the cast and crew of a third-rate syndicated television show.  Ever done that?"

The Doctor looked at Tony and grinned brightly.  "No.  No, I have not.  _Molto bene_!"

Tony glanced at him.  "What is that?  Time Lord talk or something?"

The Doctor's grin faltered, then fell as he stared at Tony.  "No," he said, suddenly lacking the bluster of a moment ago.  "It's Italian.  Means 'very good'.  Doesn't anyone study foreign languages anymore?"

Tony rolled his eyes.  "I'm Canadian, Doctor.  I can barely speak proper English.  The only other language I know is French, and I know very little of it."

"French, yeah?" the Doctor said, suddenly grinning again.  "Alright.  _Allons-y!"_

~~~

Tony pulled up to the diner and parked next to Kevin's car.  He started to climb out of the vehicle, but the Doctor caught his arm.  The taller man was looking cautiously out the windows.  "How about we look around first from here?" he said, peering out the windows.  "We can't be touched here."

The hairs on the back of Tony's neck stood to attention at the implications.  "Well, since you put it that way," he murmured, locking the car door.  He looked around at the nearly empty parking lot, trying to spot... actually, he didn't know.  "What do they look like, exactly?"

"Have you ever been to a cemetery and saw a statue of a weeping angel?  They look exactly like that."  The Doctor peered up at the sky as Tony glanced around again.

"I don't see anything," he said.

"Nor do I.  Let's go, but keep your eyes open.  If you see one, don't take your eyes off of it."  The usually jovial Doctor looked grim as he opened his door.  "Not even to blink, you understand?  Don't even blink."

"Yes well, when you find the cure for blinking, you let me know," Tony muttered, but he moved cautiously out of the car.  He looked around nervously as he approached Kevin's car.  Everything looked normal.  "So, what exactly are we looking for?"

"I'm not sure," the Doctor said, crouching down to study the driver's side door.  The paint on the car was a pale blue and looked rusted in a couple of places, but that didn't really say anything except that Kevin was too cheap to get a paint job.  The Doctor reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the 3-D glasses, looking around.  "Definitely was the angels, though.  There's a trail of void stuff."

"Should we follow it?" Tony asked, looking around.  He didn't want to follow it.  He didn't like the idea of hunting down an alien creature that he didn't understand.  He didn't have enough information to handle this situation yet.

"And do what once we find them?" the Doctor asked, looking up at him.

"No idea," he replied, still looking around the parking lot.  "So let's not do it."

"Oh, you're kidding me, right?" another voice interrupted.  Tony and the Doctor turned to see Amy standing just outside of the diner, her arms full of folders.  She was staring in disgust at the Doctor.  "You had me lock myself in a bathroom so that you could stand in a parking lot in 3-D glasses?"

"She doesn't listen to instructions well, does she?" the Doctor asked Tony.

"You tried to give her instructions?"

Amy narrowed her eyes and stalked toward them.  Tony seriously considered stepping behind the Doctor.  "The angels, the creatures that attacked Kevin, they leave a trail of... stuff that can be seen with the glasses," Tony told her.

"And you can track them with 3-D glasses?  Tony, that's lame, even for you."

"Hey!" he said, a little offended.  "They're his, not mine, and whatever works, right?"

"And they are certainly not 'lame'," the Doctor added, sounding as wounded as Tony.

They were a sad pair: a wizard and a Time Lord, both with the power of the cosmos in their hands.  Together, there was probably nothing they couldn't do, and yet, with one hard glare of black-lined eyes and a few harsh words, Amy had them whining like kicked puppies.  Then again, Tony would rather take on a few demons than have to argue with Amy.  The demons he could handle.  Amy... there was no stopping her.

"Hang on," Tony said suddenly.  "What are you doing out here?  The angels could still be lurking about."

"If they were lurking about, then they would have attacked me while I was picking up these folders," she said, waving the files for them to see.  "Only idiots kill the people that can lead them to what they want."

Both the Doctor and Tony stared at her.  "What do you mean, what they want?" the Doctor asked, putting his hands in his pockets.

Amy rolled her eyes with a loud sigh.  "I know Tony's not bright, but if you two were all that were standing between the world and imminent disaster, we'd be screwed.  Fortunately, the rest of us are here."  She waved the files again.  "What do you think I was doing while I was waiting for you?  Cowering?"

"Well..." the Doctor started.

"I don't know what kind of women you travel with, Doctor, but you finish that thought and the angels will be the least of your worries."  She flipped open a file.  "This is a full synopsis of the _Doctor Who_ episode called  Blink, which feature the weeping angels.  According to Kevin's notes, the angels have the TARDIS, and in this episode, they needed both the TARDIS and the key.  Most likely, since there was nothing in the notes about the Doctor disappearing and, you know, he's standing right here--" The Doctor and Tony glanced at each other-- "the Doctor still has the key.  So, they need the Doctor and, since I'm the first one to see him, they'd leave me to lead them to him."

"Which you've done now," Tony pointed out with a touch of alarm.

"Yeah, but you don't see them attacking, do you?  Still, we should probably get indoors."  She seemed calm as she looked around the rooftops, but her red nails tapped against the manila folders in agitation.

"Let's just get to the studio," Tony suggested.

"What about Kevin's car?  If we leave it here, it'll get towed."

"Did he drop the key?" Amy shook her head.  "Well, as I don't have a spell that hotwires cars, we'll have to leave it here."

"Why don't you let me deal with the car?" the Doctor said, holding up the sonic screwdriver and wiggling it.

"He's a regular intergalactic trickster, isn't he?" Amy observed.  "Breaking into cars, lying to people.  Do you have any good habits, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked between the two humans, looking a bit put out.  "You two are really hard a person's ego, you realize that?"

"I get the feeling he's used to having people in awe of his prowess," Tony pointed out lightly to Amy.

She snorted.  "Boy, is he in the wrong crowd.  Don't crash, Doctor; I don't think Kevin's car insurance covers alien abductions."  She headed off toward her car as Tony grinned at the Doctor.  The Time Lord actually rolled his eyes.

"That was bad," he said, opening the door.

"And yet so entertaining," Tony pointed out.

~~~

"This is just brilliant!" the Doctor said, turning in a circle to take in the sets and lights of CB Productions' studio.  His face had lit up the moment they arrived.  "What do you film here?  You didn't mention."

"It's a television show; _Darkest Night_.  It's about a vampire private investigator and his human sidekick," Tony said, looking at his watch and taking the folders from Amy.  "Great.  Unit call is in just under an hour and I still have no idea what to do."  He rubbed a hand over his eyes, feeling exhausted.  As far as the kind of things Tony the Wizard normally needed to deal with, the evening had been fairly straight forward and easy, but it was a lot of running around and he was still running on no sleep.  If the Doctor suffered from lack of sleep, he didn't show it.  "I have no idea how his human companions keep up with him and survive," he muttered to her.  "He's more hyper than a ten year old on Pixie Sticks.

Amy glanced at the Time Lord as he studied the light board, grinning in fascination.  "Why not just tell him you need a break to think?"

"Because I suspect he'll leave me in the dust, and then I'll have to clean up his messes.  I'd rather stop him from making them in the first place, not that I seem to be able to influence what he does.  Speaking of," he said, raising his voice.  "Where's that spellbook, Doc?"

"Doctor," he corrected, and fumbled around in his pockets.  Both Amy and Tony blinked as he pulled the book out of a pocket and handed it over.

"And you said that 'bigger on the inside' spell wasn't useful," Amy said to Tony.

"It's not a spell," the Doctor pointed out, glancing at her.

She snorted.  "Sure.  What is it, then?"

"Children," Tony said, the warm hint of warning in his tone.  He took the book and handed it to Amy.  "Can you read up on the spell 'Interdimensional travel' and give me your impressions?"

"Why me?" she asked, taking the book.  "You're the wizard."

"Yeah, but you've read grimoires and the files.  I haven't read the file yet and need to catch up on what these angels are and what they can do."

"Yeah, fine.  I'll take a look, but first, I have to go home."

He blinked as she rose and grabbed her purse.  "Go home?  Why?"

"Tony, it's seven in the morning and I'm still wearing my clothes from yesterday," she said, gesturing to the plaid skirt and vest.  "I need to change.  I have to come back for work anyways, and I'll look at the book before I start.  Have Mr. 'It's-not-a-spell' take a look in the meantime.  Maybe he can come up with something."

"It's an interdimensional gateway," the Doctor said, having moved on to look curiously at Raymond Dark's coffin.

"Something that isn't obvious by the title of the spell."

To Tony's surprise, the Doctor shot her a boyish grin that made even his heart skip a beat.  Amy just rolled her eyes with a grin of her own.  "Stop being cute.  I'll be back.  And give Tony a break," she said over her shoulder.  "He's only human and does, on occasion, need sleep."

The Doctor looked back at Tony, his brown eyes skimming over the younger man, assessing his condition.

"I'm fine," Tony said quickly.

"Yep," the Doctor agreed, pulling out his sonic screwdriver.  "all the same, you might consider eating something.  If you insist that you're a wizard, manipulating the energies you'll have to will deplete your bodily stores, and you're skinny enough that this might be a problem."

"Look who's talking," Tony said, eyeing the alien's slender form.  He had to admit, it was a nice form.

The device lit up, humming in the Doctor's hand.  "I'm not the one who says he's a wizard," he replied, distracted.  He listened to the hum, then started off toward a corner of the studio.  Tony was unsurprised by which corner.

"That was where the gate was," he said, turning to look back at the files and start reading as fast as he could.

"I can see that."  The Doctor put away the screwdriver, looking up at the empty space above his head.  He pulled out the 3-D glasses and found exactly what he'd expected to find.  "Void stuff," he murmured.  "It appears as if this gate isn't all that different from the one Joshua Bedlam created.  Different methods, of course," he said, glancing around.  "But same results."

"Uh huh," Tony replied, distracted.

"But different purpose," he continued thoughtfully.  "Why would Joshua Bedlam create a gate to pull me to this world?  That doesn't make any sense."

"Yes, it does."

The Doctor glanced back at Tony, who was still sitting at Raymond Dark's desk, reading the files.  "How so?"

Tony sighed, rubbing his eyes and sitting back.  "Adoration."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow.  "Pardon?"

"In this world, you're a character on a television show, and fans are a special breed of people.  He probably just wanted to meet his idol.  I'm more confused about why he pulled the angels through."

"Oh, that's easy to explain," the Doctor said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.  "A gate like this," he said, jabbing his thumb up at the ceiling, "is one thing.  It's like any other doorway, meant to connect to locations.  But Bedlam didn't create a gate, exactly.  He created an opening between the different layers of reality to grab a specific individual.  What he did is like..."  He looked up, touching the tip of his tongue to his upper teeth thoughtfully.  "Oh, like trying to spear a particular fish in dark water out of a moving school through a ten centimeter hole in ice five yards thick."

"Oh, is that all?" Tony asked, amused by the comparison.

"Point is, the likelihood of him catching exactly what he's aiming for is astronomical, especially considering his focus was a copy of a single episode of television.  I'm not surprised he picked up a few other strays at the time or, perhaps, it simply attracted their attention."

Movement from down the hallway caught their attention.  They both looked up to see Lee enter the studio.  "Hey," the actor said, looking at the wizard and Time Lord.  "Any closer to finding the TARDIS?"

"What are you doing here?" Tony asked, a bit surprised to see him.

Lee glanced at him, looking a bit unsure about his reception.  "I work here, remember?" he replied a bit coolly.  "Where's Amy?"

Tony was a bit taken aback by the reply but, to be fair, he'd been slightly less than welcoming.

"She went home," the Doctor replied, looking back up at the ceiling.

"Her car is still here."

The Doctor's eyes snapped down to Lee, then he pushed off the wall, taking off.  He pulled out his screwdriver as he ran, studying the hum and light, Tony following closely behind him.  They burst out of the studio, Lee taking up the rear, and the Doctor looked around, an almost maniacally intent expression on his face.  Tony reached into his coat pocket and pulled on the 3-D glasses.  He saw the void stuff at the same time the Doctor turned to the spot where the angels got her. 

"Guys, what's going on?"

"Amy," Tony said.  "The fucking angels took Amy."

## Part Nine

Tony paced like a caged animal, wanting to scream in frustration.  Lee watched his dark face for a moment, then looked at the Doctor.  The man seemed no more pleased than Tony, but infinitely more approachable than the cursing wizard.  "What does he mean, gone?  Gone where?"

The Doctor's attention was caught briefly as he grabbed Tony out of the way of a vehicle trying to pull in and park.  "Back in time.  The angels who have the TARDIS managed to get their hands on her."

"The angels?  The ones you called assassins?" he asked, starting to get alarmed.  "But we can find her, right?"

"Just what is going on here?" a new voice said.  They all turned and watched as another man approached them, bewildered and cool gaze sliding between the three men.

"Who is he?" the Doctor asked Lee.

"Peter Hudson.  He's the director.  Peter," Lee said, stepping forward.  "We're having some of the usual complications."

Peter glanced at Tony, who was still wearing the 3-D glasses and staring at a spot in the air, fuming.  Apparently he thought two actors were far safer than one furious wizard and glanced over Lee's shoulder.  "Is that--"

"Hello, I'm the Doctor," the Time Lord said, reaching around Lee to shake Peter's hand.

"Is he joking?" Peter asked, incredulous.

Lee sighed.  "Dear God, I wish he was."

The Doctor's eyes were watching the road as another car pulled into the parking lot.  "Anyways, Peter, what are you doing here?" he asked, putting his hands into his pockets.

"He'd better be joking," Peter said.

"We're filming today, Doctor."

The Doctor's eyes widened.  "What?  Filming your show?  Here?"

"Yes, here."

"Right.  And... how many people does that usually take?  Because, if it's a lot, and I suspect it is, than we have a problem."  He shaded his eyes, frowning at Adam as he climbed out of his now-parked car.  Adam was staring back with his eyes wide.

"And what problem would that be, Doctor?"  Apparently, the commotion had finally caught the attention of Chester Bane.

Lee mentally groaned as both he and the Doctor turned to face CB, ignoring Adam's call of: "Is that who I think it is?"

"Hello," the Doctor said.  "You seem to know me, but I'm sure we haven't met."  Lee was caught off by his whimsical attitude, stuck now in the uncomfortable position of being the person who stood between the Doctor and everyone else.

"Mr. Fitzroy called me and explained some details."  For his part, CB seemed to be as urbane as he usually is, a slight contradiction to the intimidating feel of his mass filling the doorframe.

The Doctor seemed unimpressed.  "Ah, good man.  And you are?"

"Doctor, this is Chester Bane.  He's the CB in CB Productions, our executive producer."  At the Doctor's blank look, he added dryly: "He's the boss."

"Ah!  Brilliant!  Well," he said, turning in a tight circle to observe the growing crowd whispering and staring at him, "maybe not so brilliant.  The problem is that people are disappearing and every additional one that disappears makes it harder for me to find them."

That finally caught Tony's attention.  "You said you couldn't save them."

"Weeell," he said, tugging at his ear.  "I'm still working on that part, but whatever I come up with, I'm sure it'll be brilliant."

"You want to close the studio," CB said.  The refusal in his tone was hard enough to make both Lee and Tony wince.

The Doctor blinked.  "What?  Whatever for?  I didn't say that.  Did I say that?" he asked, looking at Tony.

Tony shook his head cautiously.  "No, but then what's the problem?"

"The problem," the Doctor said, "is that I was hoping to have more time to sit and think, but we can't stay here with so many of your co-workers around."

"Why not?" Adam asked curiously.

"Because," Tony said, trying to take some of the attention off of the Doctor.  He was starting to look put out at having to stand still for so long, "the angels... well, more like gargoyles, that are following us have been picking people off and the more people they send back, the more difficult it is to help them."

"Then again," Kate said, speaking up, "the more eyes, the safer you are."

As one, everyone turned to stare at her, including Tony and the Doctor.  "What?" the Doctor said.

Kate actually flushed under the alien's regard.  "Blink, with the weeping angels, right?  It's one of my favorite episodes."

"Blimey, you're an unusual lot," the Doctor replied, looking over everyone.  "An imaginary character shows up on your doorstep and you act as if it's nothing unusual."

"Yes, well, we're in television," Tony said, shrugging.

"That and having a wizard on the payroll and being ground zero for everything supernatural in Vancouver adds a certain nonchalance," Lee added, favoring his lover with a wry smile.

"Back to the point," Tony said, sure he was also flushing.  "More eyes might make it safer, but we have to limit the people who get sent back and the angels are looking for the Doctor.  Besides, fixing this hinges on finding the TARDIS and we can't do that from here."

"You found demons from here," Peter pointed out.

"Yes... well... yeah.  Anyways, the angels are assassins, so unless you want to die..."

"You can't do your job if you're not here," Adam piped in.

Tony looked around at them.  "Are you listening to me?"

"Speaking of jobs, we're burning money standing here.  Tony, check to see if we have the updates for today's script.  Everyone else, get to work," Peter said.  CB watched his employees as they entered the building and Tony just stared after them.

"Who am I supposed to ask?" he said, stunned.  "Amy was assassinated by the angels!"

"Start by looking in the bull pen, then find Amy.  Those phones won't answer themselves."  Peter shut the door behind him.

Lee, Tony, and the Doctor stared at the door in surprise.  "That was... quite possibly one of the strangest interactions I've ever seen," the Doctor said mildly.

Tony sighed, throwing up his hands in defeat.  "Welcome to my life.  I'd better find the script changes.  In the meantime..."  Tony glanced at his partner.  "Talent call is at ten.  Find a map and keep an eye on him?  Be careful; he's like a junkie on a fix sometimes."  With that, Tony scrambled inside to actually do his job.

The Doctor glanced at Chester Bane, who was watching him.  "And you can't let your employee have the day off?"

"Is he saving the world?" CB asked.

"More like the whole of reality, but yes."

"These angels are after you.  If you're here, then he's here, and he can work."  CB also headed inside.

The Doctor stared at the door, actually shocked.  "Humans," he finally said.  "The world, the whole of reality, is at stake, but you can only do something about it during the commercial breaks."

"Pretty much," Lee said, shrugging.  "Let's find that map."

~~~

The Doctor blinked, lifting the map up to look at the light shining through the small burn mark on it.  "And that is where the TARDIS is?" he asked.

Lee had found a map and laid it across Amy's desk.  Tony, microphone and head jack on, had popped into the office long enough to breathe on it then press fingers to the map.  A long string of words later, the spot had flared, and Tony had ran out to fetch a dismembered hand.

Lee nodded, looking at the map.  "Yeah.  That's how the spell is supposed to work, anyways."

The Doctor laid the map back down, sitting back in the chair and studying the mark as he tugged on an ear lobe.  He glanced up at the clock, then at the map.  "Do you have a truck?" he asked suddenly.

Lee frowned at him.  "A truck?  Doctor, you're not thinking about going after the TARDIS without Tony, are you?"

"He's busy earning a paycheck."

"And I have to start work soon."

"Talent call is in two hours.  That's plenty of time for you to pop out and be back in time for makeup."  He stood up, picking up the map and smiling playfully at Lee.  "What do you say?"

Lee looked helplessly at the man.  "If I say no, you're going to go by yourself, aren't you?"  The Doctor's smile broadened into a grin as he nodded.  The actor sighed.  "Fine.  Let me find us a truck.  Stay here," he said, point down at Amy's seat.  The Doctor sank down and folded his hands primly on the desk.

Lee rolled his eyes and headed out of the room.  As he did so, he heard from behind him, "Hello!  CB Productions," and cringed.

~~~

Lee pulled the truck up to the abandoned warehouse and stopped, staring at the structure.  "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked, glancing over at his companion.

The Doctor also studied the building, then pulled out his 3-D glasses.  "Well, it's definitely the right place.  Just keep your eyes open and move slowly.  With any luck, the angels won't be here."

They both climbed out of the truck and headed toward the building.  Lee took a nervous moment considering how they looked, two well-known actors, one in a suit and trench coat, the other in jeans and a biker jacket.  They made quite a strange pair.

"There," the Doctor said suddenly, pointing up at a window.

Lee shielded his eyes to look up.  Through one of the windows, he could see what appeared to be a stone statue looking back down at them.  He swallowed a bit nervously.  "So... so if I just stand here and look at it, you're okay to get the TARDIS?"

"There's probably more than one," the Doctor said, looking at the door.

"What?" Lee said, looking at him incredulously.  "You didn't say that."

"You stopped..."  The Doctor looked back up at the window, but the angel was gone.  He looked at Lee, his expression cross.  "Now, listen to me.  We're going to go to the window and look inside, see if we can spot the TARDIS.  Once we get inside, I'll look to the front, and you follow closely behind, watching our backs.  If you see an angel, don't take your eyes off of it, you understand me?"  He took Lee by the shoulders, making the actor nearly step back.  "Don't take your eyes off of it.  Don't even blink.  Blink, and we're both dead."

"No blinking," he said, his heart pounding.  "Got it.  But... but if something does happen, Tony can fix it, right?"

The Doctor's look was grim as he turned back toward the window.  "Let's hope so," he said.  "Now, watch our backs.  I'm going to look inside.  They'll be cautious, remember, because they won't want to send me back in time until they have the key."

"How are they going to get it from you?" Lee asked, standing close enough to the Doctor that the long coat brushed his ankles.  He looked out over the area around them and up at the sky, his eyes making a continuous route.

"I don't know," he said.  "But I imagine they have a plan."

"I wonder how they communicate?" he said.  "I mean, if they can't look at each other, do they just talk without looking?"  He was chattering nervously and he knew it, but he couldn't seem to help himself.

"I don't know," the Doctor said.  "Perhaps some kind of telepathy.  I haven't actually asked them."  He wiped at the window with his elbow, then grinned.  "There she is.  Let's go."  He took hold of Lee's arm, pulling him gently behind him to keep them close as the actor kept an eye out behind them.

The front door of the warehouse emptied into a short hallway.  The Doctor moved cautiously, his hand firmly on Lee's wrist as the actor moved awkwardly behind him.  He stopped at the first door on the left and glanced in through the window.  "There's an office here," he said.  "I'm going to have a look inside, make sure it's empty.  Keep an eye out down both ends of the hall."

"This is a very bad idea," Lee said.  "I just thought I'd point that out."

"Objection noted," the Doctor said, then opened the door.  He carefully looked around, but the room was mostly empty and the dust was thick on the floor.  Still, the sand in Joshua Bedlam's room hadn't been disturbed either.  After carefully checking the room, the Doctor stepped back out.  "Empty.  The TARDIS was this way," he said, gesturing off to the right.

They continued on cautiously, the Doctor's hand firmly around Lee's wrist again.  He arrived at the door to the right and looked in quickly.  "I've found the TARDIS.  Watch the hallway."  He pulled Lee into the doorway, letting the younger man stand there as he studied the room.

Suddenly, Lee's hand twisted in his, grabbing his wrist.  "Doctor," he said in alarm.  "There's an angel."

Without even thinking, the Doctor jerked Lee into the room and slammed the door.  He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the door, locking it.

"Will that work?" Lee asked from the floor, where he'd landed.  He cautiously stood up, his eyes scanning the room.

"I don't know.  Good enough for now, though."  He approached the TARDIS, putting his hands gently against her panels.

"Except we have no way of getting her out of here now," Lee pointed out.  "The angels are blocking the doors."

"I know, I know.  Let me think a moment."

"Can we use the TARDIS to escape?" Lee asked.

"No.  She has to conserve her power right now.  Using her will definitely have to be a last resort."

Lee sighed, running a hand through his dark hair.  "So, what your saying is, you have no plan."

"Working on it," the Doctor replied, looking around the room.  He heard Lee suck in a breath and turned sharply.  Lee was looking up, his eyes wide and face pale.  The Doctor followed his gaze to see the angels.  The room didn't have a ceiling, the warehouse a large cavern, so the walls didn't attach to a roof.  They simply ended.  Two angels were standing side by side on top of one of the walls.  One had its hands covering its eyes.  The other was looking at them, one hand extended, palm up as if asking for something.

"That's the problem with the angels.  They're never open for negotiations," the Doctor said, studying the room.  "Keep your eyes on them.  Don't even blink."

"I'm so not blinking," Lee said, his eyes focused intently on the two.  "How many are there?"

"With any luck..." he said, turning in a circle, "those will be... oh."  He was practically back-to-back with Lee and there were two more angels in front of him.  One was on the wall, barely in his range of vision.  The other was a few feet from him, and its hand was also extended to receive the key.  "I have two more over here."

"So, no luck, then," Lee said dryly.

"Doesn't appear that way."

## Part Ten

"What are we going to do?" Lee asked, his back pressed to the Doctor's.

"Um..."  The Doctor kept staring, his mind racing.  "I have nothing.  You?"

"No idea."

"Maybe if you ring Tony...?"

Lee snorted.  "Even if I could reach him, and I can't since cells don't work at the studio, one of us will blink before he gets here."

The Doctor frowned.  "Why won't mobiles work?" he asked curiously.

"Focus, Doctor.  This is not the time nor the place."

The Doctor, his eyes still focused on the angels, reached out to gently touch the TARDIS.  "We'll go inside the TARDIS.  They can't follow us."

"We won't be able to escape, either," Lee pointed out.

"One thing at a time.”

“Well, whatever we’re going to do, we’d better do it now.  My eyes are starting to burn.”

The Doctor didn’t dare glance at the TARDIS, nor pull out the key.  He couldn’t put it in a place where the angels could get to it.  He just had to hope that the TARDIS would obey him and lifted a hand, glaring at the angels.  He snapped his fingers and, to his great relief and delight, the door clicked open.  He felt for the door and pulled it wide so that they could both walk in.  “Alright.  With me now.”

It would have worked, too.  Everything was going smoothly until Lee stumbled over his own feet, falling against the TARDIS door.  Involuntarily, he looked down to catch himself and, in a panic, tried to draw his eyes up, but he knew he would be too late.  As he brought his eyes up desperately, there was a large flash, and dust blew out, getting into his eyes.  He cursed, ducking his head and blinking wildly.

“Doctor!” Lee said, reaching blindly behind him for the other man.

“What did you do?” the Doctor said, sounding stunned and a little horrified.

Lee opened his mouth to answer, but apparently, he wasn’t the one the Doctor was speaking to.  “I did what I had to,” Tony’s voice replied angrily.  “What the hell were you thinking?  Two people against four angels?  How did you plan on getting the TARDIS out, exactly?”

“I would have gotten there,” the Doctor replied.  “You didn’t have to kill it.”

“It was stone the moment I laid eyes on it, and you can’t kill a stone.”  Hands grasped Lee’s biceps, pulling him to his feet.

“You mean I have angel dust in my eyes?” Lee muttered, blinking painfully.  “Just fucking great.”

The Doctor got some water from inside the TARDIS and they helped Lee rinse his eyes clean.  “What if they come back?” Lee asked as they were helping him.

“Then I’ll blow up another one,” Tony snapped.  “I’m too fucking pissed to deal with them right now.  Can you see?”

“Yeah,” Lee said, looking up at Tony.  His lover looked as enraged as he sounded, and it was never good to anger a wizard that badly.

“Good.  You two keep an eye out.  I’ll get the TARDIS on the truck and we’re going back to the studio.  Once there, you can deal with the hell Peter is going to throw when he sees your eyes.”

“What’s wrong with my eyes?” Lee asked, alarmed.

“You got dust in them, Lee.  What do you think is wrong?  They’re red as a stoplight.”

“I hardly think that’s our biggest problem right now,” the Doctor interjected.

Tony glared at him, raising a finger and pointing it in the Time Lord’s face.  The Doctor raised a single eyebrow, looking at Tony expectantly, rather unimpressed.

“Don’t start with me,” Tony said, his voice low and tightly contained.  “Just don’t.  Now close the door so we can get the hell out of here.”

The Doctor followed Lee and Tony out of the TARDIS, watching the wizard.  “And you think you’re going to move her by yourself?  Just how do you plan to do that?”

Tony had walked across the room to the locked door.  He shot the Doctor a dark glare, then looked at the TARDIS and raised his hand.  The phone booth hovered briefly, then moved to land gently at Tony’s hand.  “Magic, Doctor,” Tony said, looking at him again.

The Doctor’s eyes had widened as he watched Tony move the TARDIS.  “That was… humans shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“There are a lot of things I can do that humans shouldn’t,” Tony said darkly.  “Now watch for the angels.”

With the Doctor and Lee watching, Tony used his magic to maneuver the TARDIS into the back of Adam’s truck.  Tony had Lee drive the car back to the studio while he drove the Doctor and the TARDIS back.  The silence in the truck was thick and tense as they drove.

“You’re angry with me, aren’t you?” the Doctor said, watching him.

“Why the hell couldn’t you have waited for me?” Tony demanded.

“There was no reason to wait.  We knew where the TARDIS was--”

“There was every reason to wait,” he snapped, cutting the Doctor off.  He glanced sideways at the alien, who was starting to look irritated at Tony’s gall.  “First of all, Lee is pretty much the equivalent of a cosmic damsel in distress.  If something supernatural hits town, it always does one of two things: goes to the studio, and it threatens or possesses Lee.  Those are the only two rules that everything seems to follow.  I care about him, and he’s a smart guy, but that’s just the way it is.”

“He watched my back just fine, thank you,” the Doctor said crossly.

“And if he hadn’t tripped, you would have gotten into the TARDIS just fine,” Tony said wearily.  “He doesn’t do it on purpose, Doctor; it just happens.”  He glanced sideways at the Doctor.  “You’re the only person who can get into the TARDIS, right?”

The Doctor studied him.  “Yes.  Why?”

“It’s a good segue into my second point.  If the angels had killed you, how the hell would I have saved you or anyone else?  You’re not in your world, Doctor.  How would you have gotten home if you were stuck back in time without your TARDIS?”

“I would have thought of something.”

“Maybe.  And maybe you have the time to sit around and wait for me to be born and arrive at this moment so that you can get back to helping me, but Amy and Kevin and Joshua Bedlam can’t wait.”  He sighed, rolling his shoulders to try and relax.  “I know you’re used to run-run-running, but I’ve done this before, you know.  Trust me.”

“You saved reality between takes of your television show?” the Doctor asked, his tone a bit sarcastic.

“Actually, yes.  I have.”  Tony looked over at him.  “I’m a wizard, and as much as it drives me utterly bugfuck sometimes, this is who I am and what I do.  Just trust me to help you.”

“It seems to me that you should trust your partner more,” the Doctor told him.

“I trust Lee,” Tony replied.  “That doesn’t change the fact that he has a metaphysical sign above his head that says ‘room for rent.'”  Tony reviewed what he’d just said in his mind and winced.  “And if you tell him I said that, I’ll turn you into a radish.”

The Doctor, more than anything, seemed amused.  “Your secret’s safe with me.”

As expected, when Peter saw Lee’s eyes, his own widened, then narrowed, then he suddenly sighed, rubbing his face with his hands.  “See what Everett can do,” he said, shooting Tony a glance that said it was all his fault.

Tony opened his mouth to protest, but then just sighed himself.  Of course it was his fault.  It always was.  The Doctor, surprisingly, came up with a wash in the TARDIS that he promised would clear up the redness, fix any damage, and probably wouldn’t blind the actor.  Just about everyone nearly had kittens at that last comment, but the solution worked perfectly.  With Lee’s eyes fixed and the actor safely delivered to make up, Tony moved the TARDIS into the studio, tucking it into a small set they weren’t currently using.  He shooed the Doctor inside and passed him the laptop.  “Now, do that voodoo that you do and find out how to save everyone and get you home.”

“Voodoo?”

“You know what I mean,” he said, rolling his eyes.  “Get to work.”  He shut the door and ran off to check on Lee in makeup.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor looked around the dim, quiet control room.  He went to the consol and looked up at the time pillar.  “What do you think?  You have a bit of energy to spare?”

She didn’t respond, but he pulled out the laptop, booting it up and recovering the gate mock-up.  He took a few wires from the monitor of the TARDIS, zapped them with his screwdriver, and inserted them into the USB drive of the laptop.  He then waved the sonic screwdriver over the keyboard and the information began to download into the TARDIS.  “Let’s see what we find,” he said, pulling on his glasses.

~~

Tony knocked on the TARDIS door, his head aching from the events of the morning and lack of sleep the night before.  He looked around, amused that everyone in the building today, at some point, found a reason to wander by the enclosed set to see the strange blue police box sitting there.  Kate had wandered by three times, to Tony’s count, and it had only been in the studio a few hours.

The door suddenly jerked open, the Doctor popping his head out.  Tony frowned at noticing the dim lights and the spectacles.  He hadn’t known the Doctor long, but he knew glasses meant tinkering, and he suddenly feared for his laptop.

The Doctor, upon seeing Tony, grinned broadly.  “Ah!  Tony!  Good, good.”  He grabbed the younger man’s arm and pulled him inside, shutting the door.  “I managed to feed the gate schematic into the TARDIS’ databanks and we’ve been analyzing the Metacoyan theory of the fabric of reality to see if we can translate the galactical location of this world and my world to use the gate to create a bridge.”  He bent over at the consol, studying the screen and the dizzying patterns laid out.  The loops and swirls seemed vaguely similar to the gate schematic, but weren’t exactly it.  “We just have to translate it into the pattern that you can create with your energy manipulation.  By the way, I found the runes that you used to send the demons back to their level of reality and I might be able to adjust them and make them safer, if I translate them into a language that isn’t likely to send me to some planar hell.”

“Why is it so dark in here?” Tony asked, looking around.

The Doctor finally looked up at him, then at the ceiling.  “Oh.  She’s trying to conserve energy.  Making these calculations are easy for her, but she has a very limited amount of energy to work with.  She can use the remnants of the gate energy that is in the studio, but it’s better if she absorbs them from a direct source.  To be honest, conserving what power she has would be the best.”

“What do you mean, a direct source?  Like what?”

“Well, like a rift in time and space, such as your studio, or a source that can contain a massive amount of energy, like you,” he said, looking at Tony.  “But your physiology isn’t built to manipulate the levels of energy that she would need.  It would kill you.”

“I could just heal myself,” Tony said, “but let’s not anyways.  We’re taking lunch.  I thought I’d check to see if you were hungry.”

“Chalk,” the Doctor said.

Tony stared at him a moment, then closed his eyes.  “You eat chalk?” he asked, trying to maintain patience.

“No.  Well,” he said, looking off, “there’s this one planet, Tercot Six, that has a type of insect that hives in the chalk flats, and they produce –“

“Thank you for that fantastic infomercial,” Tony interrupted.  “What do you want the chalk for?”

The Doctor blinked.  “Draw.  You know, patterns on the floor.  Scribbles.”  The Doctor looked at him, wide-eyed, as if it was the most natural thing to want to draw on the floor.

Tony sighed.  “Yeah, sure, I’ll get you some chalk.  Do you want some food as well?”

“Nope!  I’m good, thanks.”  He went back to studying the patterns that flickered and swirled hypnotically on the TARDIS’ screen.

Tony sighed and trotted down the TARDIS walkway, leaving the machine.  He went over to the construction crew, poking around.

“Hey,” Kate said.  She looked like she was nervous, but was trying to be brave to hide the fact.  “Is he coming out for lunch?”

“Nope,” Tony replied.  He lifted up a fresh stick of chalk.  “All he wants is this.”  He headed back over to the TARDIS.

“Why?” she asked, confused.

“To draw,” he called back.  Under his breath, he added, “Beats the hell out of me.”

On the way back, Lee stopped him.  “Listen, I’m sorry about this morning,” he said to Tony.  “I shouldn’t have let him go.”

Tony shrugged a bit helplessly.  “He’s the Doctor, Lee.  If you can come up with a way to make him sit still for hours, you let me know.  I have to get this chalk to him before he travels to Tercot Six.”  He waved, hauling ass back to the TARDIS.  He delivered the chalk to the Doctor, then sighed and flopped down to finally eat something.

As he was trying to quickly devour  his chicken teriyaki before the Doctor decided now was the right time to save reality or Peter decided to start setting up for the next scene, Adam wandered over.  The first assistant director grinned at him.  “You’re going to choke on your food.”

“Then my problems will be over,” he muttered in reply.

“Only if you get Amy back on those phones, first.  Listen, find Lee.  We’re going to need him immediately after lunch, and we don’t want any trouble.  If he gets attacked by those angels, we’ll lose the rest of the day of filming and CB will rain hell down on us all.”

“If he gets attacked by those angels, we might have to bump off James Taylor Grant.  I’m still not sure how to rescue those people.”

Adam snorted.  “Yeah, right.  I’ve seen you take on a haunted house to save him, and if you can’t, CB will kick your ass back in time to fetch him.”

Sad, but true.  Tony waved his little plastic fork.  “Two bites, then I’ll fetch him.”

“One bite,” Adam said with a grin, walking away.  “Time is money.”

“Give me a break,” he muttered.  However, after one bite, he obediently headed out to find the actor, taking his lunch with him.  He checked the table with the guest cast, but didn’t really expect to find Lee there.  Taking another bite, he swung by the TARDIS, opening the door.  “Hey, Doc?”

“Doctor,” the Time Lord corrected absently, studying the screen.

“Lee isn’t in here with you, is he?”

“Nope,” he replied, popping the ‘p’.  The Doctor glanced at him.  “If you’re trying to find him, why don’t you just ring him?”

“Because first of all, that’s not how a third assistant director gives the talent their five minute call.  Second, you can’t use cell phones in the studio because not only is it unprofessional, but the remnants of the gate interfere with the connections.  You can’t get a signal.”

The Doctor straightened, pulling off his glasses.  “Give me your mobile.”

“I don’t have it on me.”

“Where is it?” he asked.

Tony sighed.  He didn’t have time for this.  He threw away his trash and showed the Doctor where his bag was.  “It’s in the front pocket.  I have to go find Lee.”  He turned away as the Doctor fished out the phone and pulled out his sonic screwdriver.  Then he flipped open the phone and searched the contacts, following Tony.  He lifted the phone to his ear, making everyone watch him curiously.

Lee picked up the other line with a rather hesitant, “Hello?”

“Ah, Lee!  It’s the Doctor.  Where are you?”

Tony stopped and turned to stare at him.  “What did you do?”

“I increased the signal of your phone.  You can reach any number, anytime, anywhere in the universe.  Clever, yeah?  Lee, where are you?”

“Great.  So, if a phone goes off, we know who’s it is,” Peter said, watching them move across the sets.

“Fantastic,” Tony muttered.

“I’m outside,” Lee replied to the Doctor.  “I forgot something in my motorcycle saddlebags.”

“Alone?” the Doctor said, starting to run for the door.  Tony shot him a sharp look and started running himself.  Several of the crew, those who usually were there when the strange things happened, abandoned their lunches and followed.  Tony suspected the concern was due mostly to protecting their afternoon shooting schedule.

“I’m on my way in right--“ The line suddenly disconnected.  As it happened, the Doctor threw open the door leading outside.  He closed the phone in his hand and was forced out onto the pavement by the arrival of the crew behind him.  They all looked around, but the only sign of Lee or the angel was the keys to the motorcycle sitting forlornly near the door.  Tony picked them up, then looked around.

“They got Lee,” he said, a bit numbly.

"Raise your hand if you saw that coming," Kate muttered.

## Part Eleven

The Doctor looked around the parking lot, his eyes studying the nearby buildings and skyline.  “Right.  Everyone, back inside.  There’s nothing to see here.”

“They got Lee,” Tony said, turning to look at the Doctor.

“Yes, I see that,” he replied, trying to wave everyone back in.

“How am I supposed to shoot the afternoon schedule without one of my stars?” Peter complained, looking at the Doctor.

“More importantly, how are you going to explain this to CB?” Adam said.  He gave Peter a sympathetic pat on the shoulder as the director sighed in helpless frustration.

Tony stared at the two in disbelief.  “Doesn’t anyone care that they got Lee?”

“Don’t answer that,” the Doctor muttered as Peter opened his mouth.  “Just… just get inside.”

Finally, once everyone was in, the Doctor turned to Tony.  He glanced around the at the neighboring studios again, his expression unyielding, then gently took the keys from Tony’s hand.  “I’ll take care of these.  Don’t be long out here.  Here.”  He reached into his pocket and removed a small silver key, hanging on a string.  “You’re going to need this.”  He made sure Tony took the key, glanced around again, then went inside.

Once he was in the studio proper, he found the crew watching him expectantly.  He paused, frowning at them.  “What are you lot doing?”

“Waiting for you to fix this,” Peter said, frustrated.  “We don’t have anything better to do, since we can’t film this afternoon’s shoot without Lee and nothing else is prepped.”

“Oh, but I don’t have to fix it,” he said softly.  “Tony will.  Right, you lot come with me.  We need to clear out this area.”

“What?  Why?” Adam asked.

“Because Tony’s going to be coming through here soon, and we don’t want to be in his way.”

~~~

Tony stared at the door the Doctor just went through with something close to shock.  He just waved everyone inside like there was nothing to see and then left Tony out there with nothing but a stupid yale key.  There was no condolences, not even a half-hearted attempt to assure the wizard that they would get Lee back.  He didn’t know what he should have expected from an alien, but something more.

He wasn’t angry at the crew.  As many times as Lee has been in trouble because of all of the supernatural goings-on, Tony had always saved him and always before they needed him for the next scene.  There was no reason to believe that this time would be any different, except Tony knew it was.  The Doctor didn’t really believe that they could save the people that had been cast back into time.  They could use the TARDIS, but it could only feed from the leftover energy of the gate or Tony, and somehow he suspected that the TARDIS feeding from him would kill him.  He didn’t know what to do to save them.

In frustration, Tony gripped the key tightly and turned around, his actions sharp and angry.  He’d intended to pace and grumble and maybe gnash his teeth, but instead, he came face to face with a snarling stone angel.  “Fuck!” he gasped, backing away quickly to the door.  Oh yeah, there were at least three angels on the run and they were still after the Doctor for the key.

Tony stared at the statue in shock, turning the key the Doctor had given him in his hand.  No.  The Doctor didn’t have the key.  He did.  He had the key to the TARDIS, and the Doctor had left him out there as bait.

“I’m going to kill him,” he snarled.  First thing was first, though.  Tony had learned how to greatly dial back his Powershots, but a second one would wipe him out, and he still had to figure out how to save Lee and the others.  He couldn’t risk a second one, so he fumbled for the door, needing to get inside.  Fortunately the door swung inwards, so he was able to back inside before slamming it closed.  Of course, now the angel would be on the move.  He turned and ran.

“Doctor!” he shouted, running down through the halls which were strangely clear of people.  He looked around, trying to find the man, but obviously, the Doctor would be back with the TARDIS.  He heard the door behind him open and, heart pounding, he tore off down the hall, moving as quickly through the costumes lining the hall and, not for the first time, cursing CB’s name for being so cheap.  Mentally, of course; Tony liked his life, for the most part, and hadn’t felt suicidal in years.  At the production stage doors, habit had him glancing up at the filming light.  The red bulb was off, so he pulled open the door.  Strangely, his radio was silent.  He would have expected people to be talking, trying to decide what to do, making bets on what the decision would be, or even just gossiping about how whatever decision was reached would certainly be the wrong one.  It was dead air, though, and running onto the set, he found out why.

No one was there.

He panted, looking around.  The lights and cameras were off for lunch, of course, but lunches were still sitting half-eaten on the tables and there wasn’t a body in sight.  Did the Doctor pack everyone into the TARDIS?

There was a bang on the stage door and Tony jerked around.  The angels were inside.  Then his eyes widened as he stared around the set desperately.  One could already be inside.  It would explain where everyone had gone.  That was a disturbingly high number of people to rescue, especially when considering the Doctor was with the crew and would most certainly have been taken himself.  They needed him to operate the TARDIS and get everyone back.

As the studio door started to slide open, Tony turned and dashed toward the small area where they put the TARDIS.  His only hope was that the Doctor had saved everyone by hiding them inside.  He reached the box and banged on the door.  “Doctor!” he shouted, but then stared at his hand.  Oh God, he had the key.  The Doctor couldn’t get in.  No one could but him.

He whipped around, putting his back to the TARDIS door.  The angels weren’t there yet, but he hardly had time to get his shaking hand to put that small key into the door and hope for the best.  He looked around for his options.  They always said that, in battle, the one with the higher ground was usually the victor.  He yanked over a chair and climbed on top, scrambling onto the roof of the TARDIS.  Once there, he turned and nearly fell off as he saw the angels had moved into the doorway.  Two were already inside, and the other two were frozen on their way in.  Apparently, the fourth one had managed to pull itself back together.  Who knew gargoyles could do that?

Tony watched them.  There were only four and there was no other way into the room.  If he just kept his eyes on them… but he could only do that for so long.  He was just one person, and blinking was an involuntary response.  He would be screwed eventually.  Where was everyone?

“Guys?  A little help here?” Tony called out, but he didn’t hear a reply.  “Doctor!  Anyone?”  The studio was completely silent, save for the frantic beat of his heart.

The moments ticked by as he stared at the stone assassins and tried to come up with a way to help himself.  He could try another Powershot, but it would only deal with one, and then he’d be just as screwed as everyone else, except he’d have the only key to the only machine that could save them.

Tony’s eyes started to water as he flicked over the angels desperately, tugging at his hair as he tried to think.  Now he understood why the Doctor did it so much.  In situations like this, the only thing a person could do was pull their hair out.  And then he saw it.  Underneath the feet of one of the angels, undisturbed by the stone creature, was a chalk drawing.  His first thought was that the crew were going to have the Doctor’s ass when they saw it, but the swirls and curves resembled the symbols on the screen that was inside the TARDIS.  What had the Doctor done?

He licked his lips, his heart in his throat, then flicked his eyes against the wall.  There was nothing there, except there was a pattern against the left wall.  Unfortunately, the angels were all in the room now.  They were close enough to the symbol that he could still watch them and study it, which was fortunate.

Why would the Doctor draw patterns in chalk on the floor?  And why would he put the TARDIS in the middle of all that?  If Tony was bait, then why put him in a situation he couldn't solve?  In fact, why put the TARDIS and her key all in one location?  Duh.  Because there was something about the symbols that could stop the angels and he needed to draw the stone killers to it.  But what?  Obviously, it was something that only he could do, or why would the Doctor make him do it?

His eyes burning, Tony considered his situation.  The TARDIS was in the center of the room with him and the key.  There were four angels in the room and two symbols, one directly in front of him at the edge of the door and one to his left against the wall.  The symbols appeared on the screen in the TARDIS because the Doctor was calculating information that would help him to complete the gate schematic to send them all back home.  But these two symbols weren't a part of the gate.  In fact, the placement and the swoops and swirls rather reminded him of individual hieroglyphics or runes.  The last time Tony had worked with runes was when he fought the demons with Leah.  Those runes, when the demons were in the center of them, sent the demons back to their plane of reality, but these weren't the same runes.  Tony had feared using those runes might send the Doctor to one of the hells.

After that incident, Tony had scanned the runes into his laptop.  The Doctor had said he'd found the runes, and was trying to adapt them to a friendly language.  All Tony needed to do to confirm his theory is check for a third rune.  If there was a third, then there would be a fourth.  But even if there was all four, he couldn't draw the runes, he didn't have time, but the Doctor had already done so for him.  What if he simply charged them?  Again, he would never be able to reach all four, but he was a wizard, dammit!  The power of this world was his to command and he could run energy through a fucking floor if he had to.  It wasn't like he had to reach very far for that power.  The studio was saturated with gate residue.

It was a stupid plan, full of holes and guess work and he didn't have a single better idea.  He either had to take his chance, or he would die without even trying, and a slim chance was better than no chance at all.  Besides, if he did nothing but blink, the crew would laugh at him, and he couldn't have that.  If there was one to the front and left, then there would be one to the right and behind, and it was the only chance he had.

Tony spun, blinking rapidly as he jumped off the TARDIS and gathered his energy.  Sure enough, there was another whirling symbol and he reached for it, slapping his hand down as he felt a disturbance in the air around him.  As he hit the symbol, he shoved everything he had into lighting them all up.  Miraculously, the one in front of him flared painfully, then died.  Blinking away the after images, Tony flipped over to stop the angels, knowing it was futile.

Perhaps it was fortunate for him then that there were no stone angels.  There was nothing in the empty set room except for a few spare chairs and four chalk symbols.  He slowly sat up, wiping the tears from his face, and gave a little laugh.  "I can't believe that actually worked," he said.  Then reality caught up with him.

Where was the TARDIS?

~~~

The Doctor paced around the back of the building, ignoring the crew who were cluttered around the craft table, watching him warily.  He resembled a chained dog, wandering at the end of his tether, occasionally checking around to the front entrance of the building to see if Tony had come out that way.  It was almost comical, except for the expression on his face.  The Doctor looked grim and distant, his expression even alien.  There was the sense of a man who had seen the centuries pass, done unspeakable things, and was not accustomed to being forced to wait.  He was a man of action.  For all his years, patience was not always one of his virtues.  Frankly, he was starting to scare people.

Suddenly, he spun on his heels, staring at the exterior set doors with elation.  "Ha!" he said, although there was a pinched looked around the edge of his eyes that hadn't been there moments ago.  His loud exclamation startled several of the crew.

"What is it?" Peter asked.  "Did he do it?"

"Well, I can't think of another reason he's activate those symbols, so he must have."  The Doctor moved to the doors.  They'd locked them, to discourage the angels or Tony from running out the back.  He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, using it on the lock and pulling the door.  He barely managed to straighten in front of the door when a blow to his chest sent him reeling back.  As he straightened, Tony stepped through the doors looking murderous.  Energy practically crackled in the air around the wizard as he stared hard at the Time Lord.

"I consider myself a patient and reasonable man," Tony said, his voice low and tight as he attempted to keep from using a Powershot on the Doctor.  "I've been running around like a madman to do what I can to help you and the people who are being sent back in time by angels from _your_ universe.  I haven't slept for over thirty-six hours and have had to deal with you constantly acting like the people in this world don't really matter.  You risked the life of my partner and brought him to the attention of the angels even after I told you not to, then you set me up as bait.  I was within seconds of getting sent back to some ungodly century and the one means you set up to help me, just expecting me to figure out your little plan, sent the only means of saving the people who _were_ sent back home to your own universe.  Do you care to explain?"

The Doctor frowned disapprovingly at the younger man, smoothing out his suit.  "Calm down," he said.  "There's no need to get pushy."

Tony grit his teeth, his hands curling into tight fists.  "Talk, Doctor," he growled.  "Now."

The Time Lord was not used to having to explain his plans to people.  Usually, they just accepted that his plan saved them for the moment and so he had to have an idea of how to get home.  Truth was, he did.  The Doctor knew exactly what had to happen in order for him to go home.  What he didn't know how to do was help the people who'd been sent back, and he wasn't sure how to convince Tony that he needed to get back home without helping the missing people.  Regardless, the TARDIS wouldn't have been able to help them and was only in danger of dying in this world.  She had also been bait the angels wouldn't have been able to resist, so he'd sent her with them back home.  Since he'd been nowhere near the angels when he'd left his world, he was fairly confident that she wouldn't be near them again.  Well, mostly confident.  Sort of.  Regardless, he didn't think he liked it that Tony was challenging his decisions, and in such an aggressive way.  This was why he liked taking females.  They tended to trust him more.

"There wasn't time to explain," he said simply.

"There's plenty of time now," Tony said, not intending to let any of this go.

"Not really," he replied with a shrug.  "As time passes here, it also passes for those who are lost."

"Then I will stop time!" Tony shouted, losing his temper.  His voice rang over the lot with the hum of power, and he obviously meant every word.  The crew stared at their third assistant director.  It was so easy to forget what Tony really could do.  "The energies of this world are mine to command, and they will obey me!"

The Doctor stared at the young man with a mixture of surprise and horror. No human had the power to back that threat, but he could feel the energy that crackled and burned through the young one in front of him.  He shouldn't have been able to command that level of energy, but the very pulse of this world, even the lines of time, vibrated, waiting for the will of the wizard to be unleashed.  He didn't believe that Tony could actually stop time, but there were so many ways that he could manipulate time with the energy at his command.  The Doctor had known Tony was no normal human, since he shattered one of the angels and moved the TARDIS to his will, but he hadn't believed that the unassuming young man could handle such sheer, raw power.  He could see a hot glow in Tony's eyes and knew that he was walking on very thin ice.  The most dangerous creature in this world had been by his side the entire time.

"Tony," the Doctor said softly, soothingly.  "I'm sorry that I haven't had time to explain things to you.  If I had explained, the angels might have heard, and the trap would not have worked.  I'm still going to help you find a way to get your friends, but the TARDIS was not the way to do it.  She was dying in this world.  I had to help her.  If it had been you, you'd have done the same."

Tony snarled, moving away to pace like an enraged tiger.  The air rippled in heat wavers just around his skin.  "I am not the same as you, Doctor!" he growled, raising his head to turn and look at the Time Lord.  He hesitated mid-action, however, staring off some meters away from them.  Then his head came around.  "I don't risk people.  Not like..." But then he turned his head again, staring at the empty air.  His eyes were focused, but the Doctor couldn't see anything for them to focus on.  "I don't..."

He failed to continue, his anger seeming to ebb a bit as he stared, puzzled, at the empty air.  The Doctor followed his line-of-sight and moved.  The spot he was staring at so hard was just in front of the side entrance of the soundstage, where Lee had disappeared.  The Doctor waved his hand, but he didn't exactly feel anything different about the spot.  It was hard to say, though; the residual energy of the gate made the entire place sort of off.

"What is it you see?" he asked, pulling on the 3-D glasses.  There was a concentration of void stuff, showing that it was, indeed, exactly where Lee had been taken.

Tony cocked his head.  "It's like a line," he said, a bit baffled.  "Like a golden line that just starts mid-air and disappears off into the air a few meters away."

The Doctor turned to look around, but he didn't see a cord, with or without the glasses.  "Starting here and going off which way?"

Tony looked up, the fire in his eyes dying as the power he'd gathered in his rage slipped from his grasp.  Then he blinked a few times, looking around in confusion.  "I don't see it now."

The Doctor considered the empty air in front of him, and then the young man watching him in confusion.  He walked over to Tony and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the young man right between the eyes.  Tony tried to follow the device with his gaze and went cross-eyed.  He had to close his eyes, shaking his head a little, and scowled at the Doctor scanned him.  "I'm not crazy."

"I know," he replied, distracted.  "But your eyes were glowing a moment ago, and now they're not."

Tony stared at him in disbelief.  After a moment, he swallowed thickly.  "Glowing?"

The Doctor didn't look directly at him, instead studying the readings from his screwdriver.  He wasn't doing it out of intense focus; more so to give Tony the illusion of space while he realized how close he'd come to crossing that very delicate line.  "Yup," he said, sounding a bit absent.  "Glowing."  When he looked at the wizard, the young man looked a little green.  "I know you don't need me to tell you how dangerous it was for you to lose your temper like that.  You could, quite easily, become a monster."

Tony looked up at the man stiffly.  There was a slightly haunted look in his eyes.  It made him appear far older and wiser than the Doctor had given him credit for.  "If my eyes were glowing, Doctor, then I wasn't as close to becoming a monster as you'd think."  He stepped around the alien, going to stare at the spot where Lee disappeared.

The Doctor watched him, finding that reaction curious, but before he got the chance to ask what he meant, Tony glanced back at him.  "So what was the cord and why does glowing eyes mean anything?"

The Doctor shoved one hand into his trouser pocket and bounced the screwdriver with the other, thinking the situation over.  "When you lost your temper, you automatically gathered the energy of this world to you.  It filled you to overflowing, making your eyes glow.  Even the timelines were tuned into you... Oh!" he exclaimed.  He tightened his hand around the screwdriver and whirled on Tony, his eyes wide.  With his crazy hair, Tony thought he looked a bit like a madman.  The way he practically lunged to Tony and grabbed the humans arms wasn't particularly reassuring.  "That's it!  You're a wizard!"

Tony pulled his head back slightly so that it didn't seem like the insane alien was quite so thoroughly in his face.  "We humans have this concept, Doc.  It's called personal space.  Look it up.  And I think we've established that I am, indeed, a wizard."

"As if there was any doubt after that," Adam muttered, almost startling Tony.  He'd forgotten the crew was still there and had nothing better to do than to watch both Tony and the Doctor lose their mind.

Great.  He was never going to live the whole, 'energies of the world are mine to command' bit down.  Thankfully, Amy hadn't been there to see it or he might as well have resigned on the spot.

"But don't you see?" the Doctor said, bringing his head around.  "You said it yourself: you can command the energies of this world, including time.  I doubt you could have actually stopped time for the entire world, but you might have been able to remove the two of us from its normal flow.  And if you can do that, than you can perceive disruptions in the basic flow of time.  Something from this," he stabbed at the ground with his finger for emphasis, "time has been removed and sent to a different time in this same world.  Since you are so intimately connected to the energies here, you can see the subtle disruption that creates."

Tony frowned, trying to follow the man's complicated train-of-thought.  "So, what you're saying is that the cord I saw could be a link between this time, where Lee is supposed to be, to where Lee actually is?"

"Yes!" he said, grinning broadly.  "That's brilliant.  Even I can't do that.  Well, not quite like that.  This particular thing is a little too subtle for my perceptions, but you can do it."

"Why me and not you?  It's a time thing, isn't it?" he asked.

"Well, yes, but this isn't my world.  Besides which, time is always in a certain amount of flux.  It's the nature of time.  It's kind of--"

"Wibbly-wobbly," Tony interrupted.  "Yeah, we've covered this.  I still don't understand what it is that I was seeing."

"You want to know the exact nature of the energy?"  The Doctor was a little surprised by that.  Usually, he was cut off in his complicated explanations.  When Tony waved him on, he just blinked and straightened.  "Alright.  Well, the angels are quantum creatures that feed off of potential energy.  When they touch someone, they send them back into time and feed off of the abstract future that had one existed but no longer does.  However, the human in question still actually has a future; they didn't destroy that.  It's just in a different location in time now, so a whole new abstract potential is created.  What I suspect you're seeing is the connection of the existent line of fact, Lee's existence up to the moment he disappeared, reaching back to connect to the new potential that was created when he was sent back.  Even though it exists as two external chunks of time, for him, the flow of time hasn't changed, just the place in which he's standing.  That cord is the continuum of what existed now, reaching back to exist then."

Tony stared at him, arms crossed.  "Why did I ask?" he grumbled.  He rubbed his face with his hands, exhausted, but then looked at the Doctor.  "So, how does this help us?"

The Doctor studied him a moment, then looked off, bouncing the screwdriver between his fingertips.  Tony somehow suspected that the Time Lord was about to say something that he was strongly wishing he wasn't about to say.  "Well," he said, drawing out the vowel sound as a means to hold off the inevitable, "theoretically, you could follow the cord."

"We don't have the TARDIS anymore, Doctor," Tony replied crossly.

"I'm aware of that.  I mean to have _you_ follow it."

Tony looked at him in dumb astonishment.  He opened his mouth, closed it, then finally squeaked out: "What?"

"It's a cord.  Follow it."

" _Follow_ it?  How am I supposed to do that?"

"You can see the cord, yes?  Manipulate the energies of this world?  So manipulate."

"He can't just say magic, can he?" Peter observed to Adam drolly.  "It's bad enough when the characters won't say what they mean.  That's television."

"So isn't he," Adam pointed out.

The Doctor gave them a hard look.  "It's not magic," he said firmly.  "Magic implies supernatural forces, but Tony's abilities can be explained."

"Really?" Kate asked suddenly.  "How?"

The Doctor floundered for a moment.  "Well, he... obviously, he's just... look, just because I can't explain it at this moment, doesn't mean there isn't an explanation."

"I think his avoidance is more of a moral dilemma," Adam said again to Peter, as if the Doctor had never interrupted.

The Time Lord turned almost helplessly to Tony.  "Are they really always like this?  How do you accomplish anything?"

"Usually by giving them something to do," Tony said, glancing at Peter.  "Filming, maybe?"

The crew seemed to realize at once that the threat was gone and, as entertaining as watching Tony and the Doctor was, it was burning money and no one wanted to tell CB about the time they'd lost already.  As one, they started hustling to get things together.

"We'll do Mason's reaction shots," Peter said.  "That should please him enough to get him to work.  Make sure Lee is ready when we're finished, Mr. Foster."  He went inside with everyone else.

"Yeah, sure.  No problem," Tony said dryly.  He glanced at the Doctor with a small smirk as Adam followed Peter in, giving crisp instructions into his headset.  "And that is how you get rid of the peanut gallery."

The Doctor applauded.

## Part Twelve

"So, what do I do?" Tony asked.  He looked around.  "I mean, I've never played with time before, I was always told not to and never really had the need.  What am I supposed to do?"

"Well," the Doctor said thoughtfully, putting his hands into his pockets and rocking on his feet, "my best guess would be to grab the cord and use your power to follow it to the person in question."

"Right, but how do I do that?"

The taller man frowned slightly.  "Why ask me?  I'm not a wizard."

Tony blinked.  He was so used to the Doctor having the answers that it was strange for him not to know.  "But you're a Time Lord."

"There's nothing magic about being a Time Lord.  This method of time travel is new to me too.  Just..." he shrugged, "grab and tug.  See where that takes you.  Oh, and take me too."  He gave a big, boyish grin.  "I'd love to tag along."

"Trust me, I'm not leaving without you."  He turned, studying the spot where Lee had disappeared from.  "So... I guess the first thing would be to figure out how to see the cord again."

At this, the Doctor blinked in surprise.  "What do you mean?  You can't see it?"

"Not now, no," Tony said, walking over to the spot.  "I'm sure it has something to the glowing eyes thing.  I just have to figure out how to..." he gestured a bit vaguely, "repeat what I did."

"Oh, of course."  The Doctor turned and studied the empty spot with Tony.  After a moment, he leaned in.  "Remind me what it was that you actually did."

"That's just it," he said with a sigh.  "I don't know.  The first time I connected with the energies of the world like that, it was during the demonic invasion last year and I was in pain.  The entire time I was playing with the demons I needed pain to connect with the world."

"How did being in pain help?"

Tony shrugged.  "I hurt.  The rest of the world didn't.  It allowed me to find the boundaries then dissolve them.  This time, I was angry."

"Well, that's easy enough, then," the Doctor said cheerfully.  "Get angry."

Tony turned to peer at him.  "What?  Just, get angry?  That's your solution?"

"Well, that's what you were feeling when your eyes were glowing, yeah?"  The Doctor moved to lean against the wall of the studio.  "So, do it again."

"How am I supposed to do that?" he asked, bewildered.

It was the Doctor's turn to blink.  "You work for a television program with a bunch of actors and you don't know how to play pretend?"

Tony was beginning to regret not blasting the mocking Time Lord.  "Playing pretend is different than being genuinely angry," he grumbled.  "But keep talking.  I'm sure I'll get there soon."

"What's to talk about?" the Doctor said.  "If you can't do it, you can't do it.  I'd love, however, to be a fly on the wall when your lover finds out that you left him in whatever distant century because you couldn't bother to be angry."

He knew what the man was doing.  Obviously, the Doctor was snarking at him to incite him to anger.  If he looked at it logically, he could forgive the man for his stinging comment.  Then again, looking at it logically didn't help, so Tony decided that it was time to set the third assistant director who took tons of shit for his job aside and let the wizard take over.  "Well, perhaps I should have let the angels stay a bit longer.  Maybe they would have granted you your wish."

"I just think that you're not trying very hard if you can't be bothered to be angry about losing the man you supposedly love."

"Supposedly?" Tony said hotly.  "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You're just giving up on him fairly quickly, I think."

"Is that what you think?" Tony said.  "You know what I think?  I think what you think doesn't really matter that much.  So far, you've not been particularly helpful in this venture.  In fact, I suspect that the only reason you're here is to stand around and laugh at me."

"Oh, I'm not laughing at you," the Doctor said dismissively.  "It's more that I'm trying not to weep for the rest of humanity."

Tony scowled darkly at the man, feeling his irritation rise.  He fed that anger, thinking of all the stupid little things that the Doctor had done in the last twenty-four hours that had put his life and the lives of his friends in serious danger.  "You know who I feel sorry for?  Martha.  Your companions.  I've spent twenty-four hours with you and can't wait to get rid of you.  I can't imagine anyone being stupid enough to want to spend any real length of time with you."

"Of course you can," the alien replied calmly.  "Just imagine the intelligence of your co-workers.  After all, they are the ones who work day in and day out in a building with a wizard and the energetic residue left behind by various invasions.  Perhaps it's just me, but after the first few demons tried to eat me, I might find other employment."

"We beat the demons!"

"No thanks to you.  Would anyone here have been in danger of being eaten if it hadn't been for you?  What of those who were sent back by the angels?  None of them would have been sent back if not for you."

"I was trying to help you!" Tony said angrily.

"Some help you've been," the Doctor replied, watching him coolly.

That pissed Tony off.  His hand tightened into fists, then his fingers spread, curled like claws.  He could almost feel the pull of the energy of the world around him as he considered the strong desire to ash the Time Lord where he stood.  Instead, he grabbed the man by the lapels of his blazer, turned, and grabbed one of the golden cords he could see out of the corner of his eyes.  The power that surged up his hand from the cord felt like sticking his finger in a power socket.  The world around him swum in a dizzying blur.

It took a moment after the crazy spinning stopped for Tony to take stock and see what had happened.  He considered throwing up for a moment before deciding that joyous activity wouldn't be necessary.  He felt  long hands touch his wrists and jerked his head up.  The Doctor was in front of him, close enough to kiss, with Tony's hands holding the lapels of his jacket in a white-knuckled death grip.  No sooner did Tony pry his hands off than the Doctor bounded to his feet, looking around.

"Well, look at that!" he said expansively, turning on the spot to study their surroundings.  "You actually did it!  _Molto bene!_ "

Tony snorted.  "Stop pretending you're not shitting your pants."  He managed to make it to his feet and saw the Doctor peering at him, the mask of jovial entertainment gone.

"No human should be able to do what you just did."

"I agree," he said, suddenly exhausted and starving.  "But unfortunately, I can, so let's not repeat the obvious."  He looked around, seeing nothing but rows of soft, black earth.  "Where are we?"

"A field," the Doctor replied.

Tony rolled his eyes.  "What did I just say about being obvious and redundant?"

"I don't exactly see a sign naming which farm.  Do you?" the Doctor asked pointedly.

"No," he grumbled.  "How about when are we?"

"Hard to say."  The Doctor peered up at the sky.  "Maybe early nineteen hundreds."

"One hundred years in the past?" Tony asked, incredulous.

"Give or take."  He studied the soil they were standing on and pointed.  "It appears Lee went that way," he said, pointing North.

"You mean in the direction of the obvious and redundant footprints?" the wizard asked innocently.

The Doctor headed off.  "You know, I think I liked you better when you weren't a wizard."

Tony grinned.

~~~

"How far could he have gotten?" Tony said, leaning against the first structure they'd actually come across.  He leaned against the stone wall, peering around.  They'd reached the ends of the fields and had lost Lee's trail.  Tony suspected they could actually find it if they tried, but he didn't know how good of a tracker the Doctor was.  Tony himself had no idea where to begin to look.

"That depends on how long he's been here," the Doctor replied.  He was crouched just off the field, studying the grass.  He plucked a few blades and touched them to his tongue, thinking.

"It's only been a few hours," Tony pointed out.

"For us.  Not necessarily for him."

"So, if it's been days, he won't be anywhere around here.  How are we supposed to find him?"

"Don't ask me," the Doctor said, rising.  "You're the wizard.  How do you find things?"

Tony was getting really tired of that reply.  Before he had time to answer, though, there were shouts coming from not too far away.  He ducked behind the wall, the Doctor following him, then they both moved to get a closer look.  Peering over the edge of the wall, they could see a group of people, mostly men with a few women, moving toward a large tree.  A couple of the men were dragging something between them.  When they reached the tree, a rope was thrown over one of the sturdier branches and tied to the object the men had been dragging.  That object turned out to be Lee.  The actor looked battered, James Taylor Grant's leather coat torn in places and the slacks he wore filthy with black dirt.  He hands were tied behind his back and he struggled against the ropes desperately, the noose looped around his throat.

"I swear, I'm just lost.  I didn't mean any harm," Lee said quickly, apparently continuing a protest that had been going on for some time.

"You're not 'just lost,'" one of the men snarled.  "There's nothing around here but farmers, and you are no farmer."  The man, obviously the ringleader of the pack, nodded to the others.  Three of the others were holding the other end of the rope Lee was attached to, and they started to pull.

Tony sprang to his feet, power practically igniting in his hand to rescue the actor, but the Doctor rose as well, both his hands up.  "Everyone just hold on one moment.  Let that man go."

The trio paused, leaving Lee standing on tiptoe, the rope tight against his neck.  His face was starting to look red.  The ringleader peered darkly at the oddly attired strangers.  "And just who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor, and I'm with the Royal Northwest Mounted Police.  This is my associate, Tony Foster."  The Time Lord pulled out a familiar leather wallet, showing it to the man.

The ringleader glanced at it with a scowl.  "If you're with the RNWMP, then where are your horses?"

"We're a foot patrol unit, sent out to check on the local farmers.  That man you're about to hang is Constable Lee Nicholas.  He's on our team, so I suggest you let him go," the Doctor said coolly.

The trio didn't seem sure and the ringleader didn't seem inclined to help them.  However, one of the women came forward.  "For heaven's sake, Joseph!  You can't hang an officer of the law!  They'll take the farm, and it makes a lot more sense than a thief wandering the fields alone in clothing as strange as that."

"Look at them!" Joseph, the ringleader said.  "Look at their clothes.  Do they look like they could be the police to you?"

"They could be from the city.  Only the Lord knows what wild things folks do there.  Let's just let him go and make sure they leave."

"And if you're wrong?" Joseph asked darkly.  "What if they come back?"

"Then you can shoot them."

"Any time now," Tony growled, angry that they were leaving Lee half strung up from the tree while they debated this.

Joseph narrowed his eyes at the slighter man, unaware of just how dangerous the ground he walked on was.  "In a minute.  I'm thinking."

The Doctor suspected they didn't have a minute.  He covertly pulled out his sonic screwdriver and held it behind his back, pointing it at the rope Lee was being hung with.  There was a blue glow and a high-pitched whine, then the rope frayed and snapped, toppling Lee forward.  The actor fell to his knees, coughing and gasping.  Tony moved forward to help him as the Doctor casually put his tool away.  "Your rope must be old.  Would you rather spend your money on new rope, or on the fines I could give you for attacking an officer of the law?"

None of the men moved to stop Tony from untying Lee and helping him back over to the Doctor, although they looked like they wanted to.  The three men headed back out over the fields, Lee stumbling quickly and rubbing at his throat.  "I hate being strangled," he finally muttered.

"Get used to it," Tony said.  "Just wait until Peter sees your costume."  He looked at the Doctor, relaxing a bit now that Lee was safe.  "Royal Northwest Mounted Police?"

"It was the police force in the Northwestern territories of Canada up until nineteen twenty," the Doctor said.  "If we've gone back a century, then they wouldn't know who the RCMP was."

Lee frowned, looking at the alien.  "Doctor, it's nineteen twenty-one."

The Doctor looked over at him sharply.  "Really?  Then I guess it's a good thing news doesn't travel very fast in these parts."

"You're impossible," Tony said, amused.  "It's disgusting how lucky you are."

The Doctor grinned.  "Not impossible.  Just a bit unlikely."

## Epilogue

They managed to make it back to their proper time by following the cord Tony made as he went through time.  The wizard collapsed when he got back, waking up long enough to choke down a truly astonishing amount of food, then collapsing for more sleep.  He had been right about Peter's reaction, the director having a near epileptic fit when he saw the state of his co-star and was half a mind to wake the wizard and demand he fix everything.  The Doctor managed to smooth things over with what was some truly fast talking and made himself useful by doctoring Tony and Lee and doing what he could to help repair the costume.  He had nothing better to do until Tony woke up.

When Tony actually did awaken, they went back to the locations where Kevin and Amy disappeared.  Fortunately, they found Joshua with Amy and didn't have to make a fourth trip.  To be frank, the Doctor hadn't been sure Tony had a fourth trip in him.  The young man looked like he might have lost several pounds in the effort of bouncing several people through time.  It grated on the Doctor's nerves horribly to have to sit around and wait, and the studio paid the price for the man's inability to act.  The Doctor was often found tinkering with lights and fixing cameras and making adjustments here or there.  So far, none of them had blown anyone up, although Rachel Chou, the office manager, threw him out of the office when he tried to answer the phones.

After a couple of days, Lee finally talked to Tony.  "He's a nice enough guy, Tony, and we know you're weak but, frankly, he's driving the crew nuts.  He's like a wild animal that's been locked in a cage.  He's going to start chewing through the restraints soon, and imagine the damage he could do across the lower mainland."

"What do you want me to do?" Tony said, laying on the couch in Lee's dressing room.  It was pretty much where he'd been stationed when he wasn't busy hopping through time.

"Send him home," Lee said.  "Use the symbols that sent the angels and the TARDIS back to his world and send him home."

He closed his eyes, exhausted.  "Is it really that bad?"

Lee smiled slightly.  "Amy threatened to start experimenting with tranquilizer formulas.  The Doctor gave her a lecture on how to make some with things she could find around her home or in the studio."

Tony's eyes snapped open.  "The Doctor did what?"

"She took notes," the actor replied gravely.

Tony groaned and threw his legs off of the couch.  "I've got to get rid of that menace."  He cautiously stood, but the world didn't tilt and he didn't hit the ground so he took that as a good sign and slowly headed out to find the Doctor, Lee following behind to grab him in case he got light-headed.  It said something about how Tony was feeling that he didn't shrug Lee off.

They found the Doctor out by the craft services tables.  Karen was watching him like he'd blow up her food as he split a wire and zapped the tips of it with his sonic screwdriver, a cup of coffee sitting next to him.

"Please tell me you didn't actually give him caffeine," Tony said as he walked up.

The Doctor's face actually lit up when he saw the wizard.  "Nah.  I much prefer a good cup of tea over a bad cup of coffee."  Karen cleared her throat a bit menacingly.  "Or a decent cup of coffee," he amended fairly quickly.

"What are you doing with the wire?"

"Oh, I was rigging a mechanism that would put you into a  deeper state of sleep to give you more rest so you'll be ready to continue faster," he said, setting the wire aside.  "Apparently, I shouldn't have bothered."

"And isn't that a shame?" Tony said, glad he'd managed to dodge that bullet.  "Listen, I've been told you're a bit antsy.  The runes are easy enough to do, so I was thinking maybe now would be a good time to send you back home."

"Not that it hasn't been fun," the Doctor said, rising and pulling on his trench coat, "but I thought you'd never ask."  He reached into his pocket, carefully clearing a small section of table.  He laid out four pieces of paper with strange, swirly designs on them.  "These are the four runes that the TARDIS gave me.  They're the ones you used to send her back to my world, so they should work for me as well.  They should also work just like the runes you used to send the demons back to the hells."

Tony peered at the designs.  "They're a little more complicated than I expected them to be."

"You don't have to draw them," the Doctor pointed out.  He stepped out of the craft services area and laid the four symbols on the ground, then stepped into the center.  "Now use your power to activate them."

"Are you sure that will work?" Tony asked.

"You followed a cord of abstract energy into another time.  I don't think this will be very difficult for you."  The Doctor shifted on his feet, making sure he was in the center of the symbols, then looked at Tony.  He smiled charmingly, making the human's heart skip with how attractive he really could be.  "It's been a pleasure, Tony."

"You too, Doctor," Tony said, almost sad to see the Time Lord go.  It wasn't that he wanted him to stay so much as that he'd knew he'd never see the man again.  "Take care of yourself."

"I intend to."

Tony shook his head, then crouched down and put his fingers on one of the sheets of paper.  He poured energy into the paper, making the symbols glow hotly, then looked at the other sheets, willing the power to trail to them in a circle.  When the last rune filled with light, they all flashed brightly.  Tony turned his face away, blinking rapidly.  When he turned back, finally able to see, the only thing there was four black, ashy marks on the ground.  He sighed.  "Good-bye, Doctor." 

Lee reached out to help the exhausted wizard stand.  They headed back inside, Lee making sure that Tony made it safely back to his couch to lay down a little longer.  The actor turned to head back out, but paused in the door.  "Oh.  The Doctor wanted me to let you know that your laptop is in here."  He pointed under the coffee table, then left.

Tony laid there a moment, closing his eyes as he relaxed.  He was glad the Doctor reminded him, pointing out where the laptop was, and was a little surprised he hadn't heard of the man playing around with it.  Then he opened his eyes, an unnerved feeling coming over him.  The Doctor had done several things to his laptop with the screwdriver and he wasn't sure anything had been reversed.  He powered up the machine, then went to the file directory.  Once there, his eyes widened.  The hard drive was bigger now, and there was a single file that took up a truly obnoxious amount of space.  The Doctor had left the gate schematic on his computer.  He cocked his head and opened the file, studying the swirls and lines of information.  Everything looked the same until he came across one section of the design, where the Doctor had mentioned the 'to' location of the schematic should be inserted.  The pattern looked the same, but off to the side, separate from the main design, was another small insert.  Tony blinked, then smirked slightly, wondering if the Doctor had left the location of his reality on the side of the schematic on purpose or by accident.  Perhaps the TARDIS had put it there.  Either way, he now had transport to the Doctor's world.  He closed the laptop and set it aside, intrigued but not the least bit interested in testing out the gate.

At least, he wasn't yet.

~~~

The Doctor sank heavily to the floor, his head pounding. "Given a choice, I definitely prefer travelling by TARDIS."  He rose to his feet slowly and looked around, trying to figure out where he was.  It was daytime, and everything felt far more normal to him than the energies of Tony's world, but he didn't see Martha or the TARDIS.  He did, however, feel the TARDIS and knew she was here, so that was one problem down.  The other was to figure out exactly where she was and if they were both where they were supposed to be.  Putting his hands into his pockets, he headed out of the alley to the main road.  Once there, he glanced around.

"Definitely London," he observed.  He considered all of the places Martha could have gone, including her own home, but they weren't in Martha's time.  The years were off slightly, but it was enough of a difference that she wouldn't have gone back to her family.  He glanced around, then headed up the street, moving down alleys and through cross-streets until he wound up in front of a little shop.  He opened the door and stepped in.  From behind the register, a blond woman looked up.  He knew he'd guess right when Sally's face lit up.

"Doctor!" she breathed.  She then stood up and stuck her head through the beaded curtain to the back.  "Martha!  Larry!  It's the Doctor!"  He could hear a bit of a scramble in the back, then Martha burst out through the beads.

"Doctor!" she exclaimed, then rushed forward to throw her arms around his neck in a large hug.

"Martha!" he said expansively, engulfing her in his arms and hugging her tightly.

"What happened?" she said, letting him go.  "I was about to go into the TARDIS when the doors slammed and you disappeared."

"Uh... yeah, I had someone accidentally pull me into an alternate dimension," he said with a small shrug.  "Took me a bit longer than expected to return, but I had some friendly help, so it all worked out in the end."

"I've been going back to check to see if you returned every day.  When the TARDIS came back yesterday and you didn't, I worried something might have happened."

"Nah," he said, grinning at her.  "You know me.  Nothing in the universe could keep me down.  Well, in the fabric of reality, I suppose, since I wasn't actually in this universe.  Where's the TARDIS?"

"We moved it," Sally said.  "It's in the alley out back."

"Brilliant."  He beamed at her and Larry.  "Thanks for helping Martha while I was gone."

"Like I can't take care of myself," Martha muttered.

Sally's smile was warm.  "Of course, Doctor.  Anything you need."

"Right, then!" the Doctor said, several days of forced inactivity making him feel the need to move, to see.  "Off we go!  Come on, Martha!"  He headed back through the beads and out of the store while Martha said good bye and quickly followed him.  He went inside the TARDIS, checking the monitor to make sure she was alright.

"Another universe?" Martha said, shutting the door behind him.  "Really?"

"Oh, yeah," he murmured.  "Just like this one.  Well," he corrected, thinking about the _Doctor Who_ show, vampiric Duke of Richmond, and the powerful wizard who work on a television program.  "Not completely the same."

"How was it different?" she asked.

The Doctor pushed a few toggles on the console of the TARDIS, remembering how Tony manipulated time and energy through sheer will.  "The people are a little different.  Not all of them, just some."  He looked up at her.  "Of course, I was in Canada.  Maybe that's just a North America thing.  Right!  Let's be off!"  He hit another switch and the TARDIS took off.

"Where are we going?" Martha asked with a grin of excitement.

He was thinking of what Amy had told him about the Caufield Manor and desired to see an old house.  "There is this beautiful old house that I feel like visiting," he said, trying to keep his balance as he moved around the console.  "I'd been there once when it was new, fantastic place, but I'd like to see what it's like now.  Now, of course, being a relative term."

"A house?" Martha asked as the TARDIS settled down.  "Just... a house?"

"Someone was telling me recently about a haunted house, and I was curious if this house might have ghosts in it," he said with a shrug.  "Ah, here we are!  Let's take a look."  He headed over toward the door, throwing it open.

"Ghosts?  Doctor, there's no such thing," Martha said.  "Right?"  She blinked as he just stepped outside.  "Right?  Doctor!"  She followed him out and walked with him down the overgrown drive.  "There are no such things as ghosts."

"Well, I suppose that depends on your definition of ghost," he said absently.  He stopped before the house, looking it over.  "How do you like that?" he murmured, quiet with awe.  "Such an incredible house."

Martha shielded her eyes, looking up at the white building.  "Where are we exactly?"

"Wester Drumlins," the Doctor said.  "You see, the house--" Cold fingers cut him off, sending a wave of dizziness through him.

Martha sank to the ground, swallowing thickly at the sudden dizziness that swept over her.  She closed her eyes, head in her hands, and forced herself to take nice, even breaths.  "Whoa," she finally said.  "That was strange."  She opened her eyes and looked up, then blinked.  Everything looked different.  It was night where it had been day, and she was in some kind of an alley.  The Doctor, whom had just been returned to her, was nowhere to be found.

"Doctor?" Martha called out nervously, pushing herself back up to standing.  She brushed her hands together to wipe off the dirt as she looked around, but there was no reply.  "Doctor!"

"Blimey, give me a minute," he said, coming around the corner.  He looked a bit woozy himself and shook his head vigorously.

"What just happened?" Martha asked.  "I was dizzy, and collapsed, and when I opened my eyes, I was here."

"Well," he said, looking around.  He seemed to recover quickly from his indisposition.  "In order to know what happened, first we have to know where we are."  He wandered down the alley, studying it.  "I see Big Ben, so we're still in London.  Something must have transported us."

"Doctor," Martha interrupted, sounding a bit sick.  She had found a newspaper and was looking at it.  "We're still in London, all right, but look at the date on this paper."

The Doctor came over and studied it.  "August sixteenth, nineteen sixty-nine," he said softly.  He frowned.  "Why is that familiar?"

"Sally Sparrow," Martha said.  "Remember?  She said these stone angels would trap us away from the TARDIS in nineteen sixty-nine."

"The weeping angels."  He blinked at the paper a moment longer, then tossed it aside in frustration.  "Oh, come on!  I just dealt with these angels.  Except... this was before the angels meet Sally, so this is in their past before they even steal the TARDIS."  He sighed, looking a bit helplessly around.  "And now we're stuck, again, without the TARDIS.  Where's a wizard when you need one?"


End file.
